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What people missed at Warren Buffett's annual meeting

Yahoo Finance's Andy Serwer breaks down what people missed at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting in Omaha last week.

Video Transcript

JEN ROGERS: So of course, this weekend was the annual meeting for Berkshire Hathaway. We've been talking about it all day on Yahoo Finance, because we had the exclusive livestream. And it's big news when Warren Buffett talks. Andy Serwer was one of very few people actually in Omaha for this event.

And Andy, we've played a bunch of Buffett sound. We've talked about the airlines. We've talked about the fact that he didn't really buy anything. He was a net seller. But having been there, are there parts of this story that we have concentrated on? Or did you walk out and say, oh yeah, somebody forgot to ask him about that question? Was there any sense to you of something that was missing or that we haven't focused on?

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ANDY SERWER: Well, I just think the atmospherics, Jen, is something that I can talk about a little bit. I mean, I think the usual questions were there. And I think people-- one thing that was different is that people were able to ask questions real-time. I mean, Becky Quick was taking questions-- you pointed this out-- in a way that has never been done before. So people were actually able to respond.

And he had that 90-minute plus soliloquy that we've been discussing, the treatise on American history. So people were able to weigh in on that. But you know, it was just bizarre to be in a place where there's usually 40,000 people, and there were 11 people or 12 people, you know, depending on how you counted it. And that the whole town, the whole city is just filled with tens of thousands of people milling about, and none of that energy was there.

And I think that, you know, Buffett really was-- you could just see that he missed that. And you have to ask yourself, well, there's not so many these left where Buffett and Charlie Munger are going to be there holding court. And you know, Charlie Munger's 96 years old, Jen. And Buffett is 89. And so, you know, every one of these things really counts.

And at the end, Buffett was saying, well, we'll see you again next year. He was telling the cameras. And you know, you could really tell that this was something that was weighing on him heavily. He did this only because he had to. And of course, he understood why he had to. But it was just a strange, strange scene.

RICK NEWMAN: Hey, Andy. As you know, I'm covering the presidential campaign. Joe Biden is 77. And it's kind of widely accepted that Joe Biden has lost his step compared with the senator he was 20, 30 years ago. He is 12 years younger than Warren Buffett. Would you say Warren Buffett has lost a step, or no way?

ANDY SERWER: I mean, Warren Buffett has lost a step physically, right? I mean, you know, a 65-year-old Warren Buffett could beat up an 89-year-old Warren Buffett. There's no question about that. Mentally, as far as the acuity goes, that's kind of a little thing that people on Wall Street whisper. I've talked to some of the top CEOs on Wall Street, who kind of say, I don't think he's quite the same as he used to be.

If he's not the same, it's pretty darn close, which is to say more than 99.9998% of anyone who's alive in the United States. So that's pretty darn good. And you know, here's a guy who's talking for 270 minutes straight in front of a million-plus people without really skipping a beat.

I mean, his voice wasn't quite what it used to be. His hair is shaggy. He acknowledged he hadn't gotten a haircut in seven weeks. I actually thought it looked pretty good. But you know, listen, I don't really think that he is behind the ball.

Now, I've asked him this paradox of a question. We've talked about this, Rick, I think. He says, when I don't have all my marbles, I'm going to hand it off. And I asked the question, well, the definition of not having your marbles is not knowing when that point is. So it's one of those sort of rubric cubes question. He assures me he'll be able to see it. Well, we don't know.

JEN ROGERS: And I think it is worth pointing out-- because we did ask Ron Olson, who's a director at Berkshire Hathaway-- is there anything to read into the fact that Greg Abel was up there instead of Charlie Munger? And he said absolutely nothing. Charlie is doing great.

We heard Buffett say a couple of times that Charlie's on Zoom. He is loving Zoom and doing fine, and that we really should not read much into that.

ANDY SERWER: Well, I will tell you about Charlie Munger. First of all, physically he's in worse shape than Warren Buffett. Then again, he's 96. However, if you had to put a gun to my head and say, which one of them has slipped a little bit more, Charlie or Warren, I'd say Warren more than Charlie.

I mean, Charlie is just scary, you know? He's an intimidating person. He's just right there with it. He can just stab you with a steely knife. And you are like, wow. I mean, it's pretty amazing. I mean, I haven't seen him this year, so I don't know. But I mean up till now.

And then the Greg Abel point-- you know, Greg just happened to be closer. I mean, sticking Charlie on a plane does not make any sense, I don't know whose private plane it was. And Ajit is also on the East Coast. He lives in New York. So Greg is nearby. And Greg, that was so funny when Greg said, I don't have anything really to add. And Warren looked at him and said, what, are you another Charlie here? It was pretty funny.

But you know, and Greg is-- I don't know how old Greg is, but he's a relative youngster. And Ron also talked about how the board's pretty old. And this comes with experience, right?

JEN ROGERS: Sure does. And what an experience it was for all of us to get to watch that on Saturday.