The Berkshire Beat: June 20, 2025
All of the latest Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway news!
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In last week’s issue, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase did not mince words — dismissing most CEO letters as “corporate pablum” not even worth reading. Glossy, jargon-filled missives that fill pages, but offer precious little of substance. Dimon’s blunt takedown begs the question: Which shareholder letters buck this trend and ditch the platitudes and back-patting to instead impart genuine insight and clarity?
This all hits a bit harder right now — as the golden age of iconic shareholder letters might be nearing its end. Warren Buffett, whose annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders are practically scripture in business circles, may have already penned his last one. (There’s no official word on that yet, but his decision to step back from the AGM spotlight probably does not bode well for those of us who hoped he would keep on writing in retirement. I’m very much hoping to be wrong about this.)
Thinking back on my favorite letter writers, I noticed a bittersweet pattern: they are all retired or no longer with us. Nick Sleep and Qais Zakaria’s Nomad Investment Partnership letters stand second only to Buffett’s in my eyes — but even these are now 10-20 years old. Nomad shut up shop in 2014 and, ever since, both Nick and Zak have kept a very low public profile.
Honorable mention goes to Jeff Harp of Trinity Bank, a lesser-known-but-no-less-important CEO whose brilliant letters schooled me on the nuts and bolts of banking. He, too, recently retired.
So, I ask you, who among today’s CEOs and investment managers have taken on Buffett’s mantle and write shareholder/client/partner letters that rise above the rest?
I’d love to hear about your favorites down in the comments. My reading list could use a few new names.
Speaking of reading lists, here is something for yours… A very kind reader sent over a PDF copy of Jack Ringwalt’s autobiography — Tales of National Indemnity Company & Its Founder, Jack Ringwalt — and generously agreed to make it available for download to all Kingswell subscribers. (It can also be found over at
’s excellent website, The Oracle’s Classroom, if that’s more convenient for you.)Perhaps no acquisition shaped Berkshire more than National Indemnity — and now we can all enjoy the long-out-of-print story as to how Ringwalt built his company into one that Buffett wanted to buy.
I’ll be sending out an entire article next week about the many lessons found inside Ringwalt’s autobiography, but I couldn’t wait to share the PDF with all of the other Berkshire-heads out there. The book is a short, lively read that really dives into the unconventional side of the insurance game — and is full of funny stories like this…
Alice [Buffett] told me once that Warren was trying very hard to get $100,000 together to start an investment pool and I finally agreed to help.
I called Warren, whom I had never met, and told him I had $10,000 with which he could fool around. He replied that he had counted on me for $50,000 and that he was sure I could afford to put in $50,000.
I told him that whether I could afford it or not had nothing to do with it; that I was willing to put in $10,000. He again stated that I could put in $50,000 and, therefore, he would not take $10,000 from me. I remarked, “If you think I am going to let a punk kid like you handle $50,000 of my money, you are even nuttier than I think you are.”
At any rate, I did not become an investor at that time, but Warren apparently was able to raise most of the $100,000 without my help.
Ringwalt ruefully noted that while National Indemnity did very well for itself, he left a lot of money on the table by not becoming an early investor in Buffett Partnership Ltd.
And, now, on to the latest news and notes out of Omaha…
In the latest episode of the Founders podcast, host David Senra shared a profound lesson from record producer Jimmy Iovine’s early struggles to break into — and stay in — the music industry. “When you’re in a position to help somebody,” he said, “you should help them. If you feel they deserve help and they deserve a break, you should do whatever you can to help them.” That echoes one of my all-time favorite Warren Buffett quotes: “If you’re lucky in life, make sure a bunch of other people are lucky, too.” Buffett and Iovine both understand that good fortune isn’t a treasure to hoard, but a current to channel outward to others. Success is most meaningful when it transforms you into a conduit of grace.
A recent TD Cowen report cautioned Class I railroads that “earnings growth will slow and their stock prices will slump if they can’t maintain improved service levels and win back volume lost to trucks”. Rail traffic plunged 11% between 2014 and 2024 — and the fall-off in coal is not entirely to blame. Even if you exclude coal altogether, volume still dropped by 1%. Why the shift to trucks? “Some 66% of shippers receive on-time performance of 80% or better from trucking partners, compared to just 16% from railroads.” Other annoyances include a lack of service guarantees and timely price quotes from railroads. BNSF Railway, for its part, has recognized the problem and created the Quantum premium intermodal service — which aims for 95% on-time performance — to combat the trucking threat.
Of course, a healthy trucking industry is a good thing for Berkshire-owned Pilot and its expansive travel center network. The Consumer Store Products trade publication explored how emerging fuels — including EV batteries — might shake up trucking in the future. But, for now, diesel still reigns supreme. “Diesel, whether it’s renewable or fossil, is not going away anytime soon. I think that’s part of the reason why Warren Buffett took a 100% stake in Pilot. Truck stops aren’t going away.”
According to Counterpoint Research, iPhone sales soared by 15% year-over-year in April and May. This propelled iPhone global sell-through marketshare to 17.4% for that period, up from 15.8% a year ago. Of particular note, the surge was driven primarily by robust demand in Apple’s two largest markets — the United States and China. An encouraging turnaround after sluggish recent results in both regions. Counterpoint also noted that the smaller, budget-friendly iPhone 16e seems to have struck a chord with Japanese customers.
Speaking of Apple… GQ raised an interesting point about the company’s new Liquid Glass design language. “The reaction to Liquid Glass online missed a bigger story here: That Apple could be sneakily trying to train its customers on looking through glass. They’re laying the foundation for a possible next stage of software, where it’ll be a window onto the world rather than into a device.” A window like, maybe, a pair of glasses. 👀
American Express plans to refresh its premium Platinum Card later this year. “Platinum Card benefits and services resonate across generations,” said group president Howard Grosfield, “particularly with Millennial and Gen Z who accounted for 35% of total U.S. consumer spending last quarter. We’re going to take these cards to a new level — not only in what they offer in travel, dining, and lifestyle benefits, but also in how they look and feel.” No word yet if this “refresh” will include a price hike from the current $695 annual fee.
Duracell filed a lawsuit against Energizer, alleging that its rival misled customers in a nationwide ad campaign by claiming that its alkaline batteries last longer. These advertisements “necessarily imply the false message that Energizer MAX batteries outlast all Duracell batteries” and represent “a clear effort by Energizer to expand its market share — at Duracell’s expense”.
I’m sorry that I can’t add to your meager list of readable chairman letters. One of my all-time favorites was the annual letter written by the founders of Leucadia National, Ian Cummings and Joseph Steinberg. It could be outrageously funny—and honest. Leucadia is now part of Jeffries.
A big reason I don’t have a longer list today is that, at 83, I’m not continually looking for new investments. In my earlier days, I found that I could easily dispense with 9 out of 10 annual reports by merely reading the first paragraph of the chairman’s letter. It would give me a pretty good idea of whether I could count on the company to make us money. It taught me to look for signs. That was in the heyday of stock-option non-accounting. The second or third sentence might read something like: We are pleased to report a 20% increase in net income from $100 million to $120 million. But the sentence included, parenthetically, $1 to $1.1 per share. In other words, half of earnings were absorbed by the issuance of stock options. A sign today would be: “We are pleased to report an increase in your company’s dividend.” Even though earnings were mediocre. Try reading a letter for a bad earnings year!
Charlie Munger often advised that we have three boxes on our desk: IN, OUT, and TOO DIFFICULT or NOT WORTH IT. And he urged us to use the third frequently.
A useful heuristic in saving time—using the NOT WORTH IT box—is to note how quickly we pick up an annual report to read the chairman’s letter. For me Leucadia was one; the other was and is Berkshire. Without doubt Warren’s annual letter has many investors reading it the morning it is released. Why don’t chairmen/women aim to make their letters worth reading? Warren once said to me that he grades his performance on how few shares trade. If you look forward to reading the annual letter, you will likely be less inclined to take a profit—or a loss, which could, with patience, turn into a lasting profit.
Proxy statements are possibly even better than annual letters when it comes to detecting corporate BS. General rule of thumb is that the longer the proxy and the more illustrations it has, the more red flags it raises. Berkshire’s proxy is famously brief. It doesn’t need to be long because there are no convoluted schemes to stealthily enrich management and directors, and so the explanation of what’s actually taking place requires much less space.