Was the Woodstock of Capitalism ever meant to be this emotional? Last weekend, the Berkshire Hathaway (US:BRK.B) faithful assembled in Omaha for their first annual general meeting without Charlie Munger, the man its chief executive has hailed as the conglomerate’s ‘architect’.
At the gathering, Warren Buffett himself veered between present and past tense, accidentally referred to his anointed successor Greg Abel as “Charlie”, and ended with a joke whose characteristic self-deprecation and charm was full of poignancy. “I not only hope you come next year,” the world’s greatest and most famous investor told his audience. “I hope I come next year.”
Perhaps it was the spectre of Munger, or the weight of an occasion bookended by standing ovations, but the 93-year-old appeared palpably more fragile than he did 12 months ago.