BLOOMBERG ARTICLE
By Claudia Carpenter
June 4
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett is getting his “comeuppance” after rejecting gold as an investment four years ago, according to Marc Westlake, head of wealth management at Dublin-based bullion brokerage Gold & Silver Investments Ltd.
The chart of the day shows gold more than doubled since May 2005, while Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares gained 6.8 percent. Buffett said at the company’s annual meeting in May 2005 that he wouldn’t get rid of assets for “a hunk of metal which had no real utility other than to people that are fleeing the dollar.”
“The point is gold has preserved a chunk of wealth that would have been otherwise taken down with other financial instruments,” Westlake said by phone from Cork, Ireland, on June 1. Maybe what were seeing is Warren Buffett’s comeuppance.”
Buffett didn’t respond to a request for comment left with his assistant, Carrie Kizer.
Gold has climbed 9.4 percent this year as investors sought a haven from declines in the stock market and, more recently, the dollar. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of shares has climbed 2.6 percent this year.
Buffett transformed Berkshire Hathaway over four decades from a once-failing textile manufacturer into a $139 billion investment and holding company. While gold has doubled since 1988, shareholders in the company have seen the value of their investment surge almost 25-fold.
Graph of Berkshire Hathaway (A Shares) compared to spot price gold May 1999 to May 2009
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