people who work weapon berkshire hathaway, people who sell their companies and businesss to berkshire hathaway wanted to be dealing with him, not the next in line. they don't want to be think about those issues wh. mr. buffet is no longer running the company, someone else will step into the role. >> talk about berkshire hathaway the company, how is >> fantastic. the five most important businesses operated at record level. he stated they'll be generating $10 billion in profits next year. >> susie: quarterly profits were down for 20 len. >> if you look at each and every one of the operating businesses, whether it's the utilities or the railroads or manufacturing businesses, they were all up year over year, and all up quarter over quartered. and so the underlying businesses are doing traffically well. the accounting conventions required a wright up, rather than a write down. the earnings go down, but the cash flow went up, and the operating performance has never been stronger. >> susie: but what berkshire stock. the shares trading at 120,000 for two years. >> we think it's worth about $1

and of course, berkshire hathaway is first and foremost an insurance company, they own geico and the malpractice insurance segment. together they make up a quarter of berkshire's earnings and we've been hearing spectacular things when it comes to higher premiums. just yesterday, prudential reported a really strong quarter, plus the big storms and catastrophes we've had worldwide, they allow insurers and reinsurers to raise premiums big time. the group is having a renaissance right now and berkshire will definitely participate. let's put it all together, berkshire is a mosaic of different companies who are on fire or turning around a big way. all of these stocks have been huge since beginning of the year, yet berkshire itself has rallied 2%. that's dramatically lagging the s&p 500 which is up 6%. the berkshire b shares are more than 8 points off the 52-week high of 79 and change. those are the ones that you should be buying unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars to throw around at the class a stock that trades at $119 grand. factoring in warren buffett's business sense and in

and yet he's the person warren buffett wants to succeed him as chairman of berkshire hathaway, the mega holding company that buffett built. like his father, howard does not live the high life. in fact, he's a farmer who would rather dig up the ground than sit in a boardroom. are you sure he's your son? >> well, i think that's worth checking out. you'll have a big exclusive. [ticking] [bell ringing] >> for 150 years, the floor of the new york stock exchange was the center of the financial world. but today most trading in stocks is done elsewhere by robot computers that buy and sell in microseconds, faster than you can blink an eye. and the computers have done so well that some institutional traders have come to believe that the game is rigged. are humans ever involved in the trading? >> humans are not involved in the trading because humans are way too slow. [ticking] >> there are close to 850,000 of them in the united states, twice the number of atms. the new slot machines, the main attraction at casinos, are like high-tech video games. and states across america are increasingly relying

why risk berkshire hathaway when you could buy straight in and buy those companies in the open market't. only about half of berkshire's investment portfolio is in stocks. we could certainly buy those stocks. that's less of berkshire hathaway's value. we can't by burlington anymore, all of the operating business, all of of the insurance businesses we can't buy. >> but wouldn't that discount overhang until essentially warren buffett goes and they know who the successor is going to be? that could be a very long time. >> we've owned berkshire hathaway for 13, 14 years. consistently we have seen the discount widen to today's level. we think it's trading about 65 cents on the dollar today. the share repurchase program which wee think puts a floor on the price only 8% down. as investors we like azim metric risk awards. and we have encountered periods where the stock has traded, for whatever reason, there's no obvious catalyst here, we'll concede that for sure but we've always been rewarded if we're just patient. here we think we'll be rewarded sooner than later. >> a lack of a dividend -- >>

berkshire hathaway reported a 21% fall in net income in 2011 to $10.3 billion.tt's company is sitting on more than $37 billion in cash. buffett made it clear he is looking to spend some of that saying he is, quote, on prowl. warren buffett with $37 billion to spend, nina. that's a story worth following. >> it certainly ask. it's going to be keeping some people guessing for some time as to who his successor may well be. >>> coming up on "world business today," we talked to the investment banker who swapped the pressures of finance to the profits from fighting. do stay with us here at cnn. matt's brakes didn't sound right... ...so i brought my car to mike at meineke... ...we inspected his brakes for free. free is good. free is very good. my money. my choice. my meineke. >>> welcome back. live from cnn london and hong kong, this is "world business today." >>> when you're knocked down it's not always to -- not always easy to pick yourself up and change your life. one hong kong investment banker has pulled it off pretty successfully. after being laid off from lehman

you own roughly a third of berkshire hathaway.on't you consider that the $2 billion that you pay -- that berkshire pays a certain tax bill. you own a third. so, basically that income that berkshire gets, the $2 billion, why don't you consider that as something -- that would skew your tax rate a little higher. you include it in your net worth. why don't you include that $2 billion -- your pro rata share of berkshire's tax bill, since you don't pay ordinary income, or minimal, why don't you consider that as part of your tax bill? >> i'm going to give away every share, every single share of berkshire i have. so, that really belongs to philanthropies. you can argue they -- >> or pay $2 billion. >> i've heard the double taxation argument a lot. actually, i have governor romney's tax returns here as well as my own tax returns. it's interesting. here, for example, in 2004 i had d $46 million of capital gains. you can put up the last page of that return. you'll see on that return that millions and millions of dollars of capital gains. a f

we are getting earnings reports from coca-cola, disney, cisco, berkshire hathaway, linkedin and grouponhich just went public in november. friday we get the u.s. report on imports and exports. we'll see if the u.s. is importing or exporting more goods in the international trade balance report. finally something to cluck about today. americans are expected to eat 1.25 billion chicken wings this super bowl weekend says the usda's national chicken council. enough to circle the earth twice if each wing was laid end to end. of that's 100 million bounds of the spicy snacks that peak at $2 a pound wholesale this time of year. hungry football fans can't beat the heat. that will do it for us today. thanks for joining me. next week, one of the richest individuals, saudi prince alwaleed bin talau. i'll see you next weekend. i have actually put in over my career. and it's 168,000 hours. so just think, if you had an 8-hour job, i'm like a man of 100 and something years old. i've worked very hard to support my family. and i finally reached that point where i'm going to retire. ♪ ♪

meantime berkshire hathaway has been a laggard with the stock up about 4% this year.bout 9%. does the relative weakness present an opportunity for investors? let's bring in shields, analyst at steefl nicholas. welcome to the program. >> thank you very much. >> i don't know if we're talking a shares or b shares but the a shares cost a lot of money. >> right. there's just a mathematical equation between the two. the answer is no. when we look at where berkshire is trading and the s&p is trading, at the same level it's always been. no attractive opportunity in berkshire now. >> what i see perhaps most important in your note today or most interesting i guess is the better way of saying it is you cite the ses session risk as one of the main reasons not to own the shares. is it that big of a deal? buffett doesn't seem like he's ready to leave any time soon. >> hopefully he won't. but so far nobody's lived forever. so that's probably the right way to invest with that expectation. second point, you've got somebody who's the most iconic ceo probably in the history of the world

. >>> warren buffett says an unnamed successor has been chosen to run berkshire hathaway when the time comes. however, the 81-year-old billionaire investor insists he isn't going anywhere. >>> and tough times in greece were set aside for the country's biggest carnival parade yesterday with handmade floats that poked a little fun at the country's political leaders. >>> well, coming up, the badgers beat the buckeyes, and one amazing backwards goal. plus, the west hang on to win last night's all-star shoot-out. your early-morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> and in weather, we're going to be watching a potent storm system moving through the rockies today and a snowstorm for the northern plains tomorrow. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." >>> good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports, an injured kobe bryant made history at last night's all-star game in orlando. here's nbc's mario solis with an early look at all your sports headlines. >>> hi there, good morning. as hollywood rewarded the best in cinema, the finest basket

billionaire investor warren buffett's berkshire hathaway disclosed its portfolio holdings in an s.e.cfiling. as of the end of the fourth quarter, the company bought stock in davita, which provides dialysis services, and liberty media. berkshire also increased its stakes in coca-cola, cvs caremark, directv, general dynamics, intel, visa, and wells fargo. but it cut its holdings of johnson and johnson, and exxonmobil. >> susie: taxes, and how much politicians pay, has been a big issue in the republican presidential primary. the debate leads allan sloan looking to hire mi romney as his tax accountant. allan is senior editor at large at "fortune." >> if the presidential thing doesn't work out for mitt romney, there's a whole other career he can pursue-- retirement planner. romney has gotten what is probably the greatest retirement package in history. even though he left bain capital in 1999, romney still gets millions a year from bain's piece of the profits that investors get from bain's buyout funds, and pays only 15% federal tax on it. in some years, less. compare that with my social se

. >> paul, i'm not friending warren buffett the berkshire hathaway ceo.th as a buffet rule to tax him and his rich friends. they're paying capital gains because he's giving his wealth to the family controlled trust in the gates foundation. basically the buffet rule is hardly going to affect warren buffett although may hit a lot of the the rich friends he talked about. >> paul: all right, james. kim. >> a hit for susan g komen for the cure, the charity now stopped giving money to planned parenthood and list add lot of boring reasons for stopping the grants, but in the case the huge backlash among liberals claiming it's political. not giving money because planned parenthood also does abortions. whatever the reasons, it was the right one. millions of americans have taken part in komen events thinking they're raising money for a cure for a cancer not women's issues, this is called mission creep. >> paul: thank you, kim. if you have your own hit miss, ger@foxne

. >>> warren buffett says an unnamed successor has been chosen to run berkshire hathaway when the timeomes but he insists he's not going anywhere. >>> and tough times in greece were set aside for the country's biggest carnivale parade yesterday with handmade floats that pokes fun at the country's political leaders. >>> well, coming up, the badgers beat buckeyes. one amazing backwards goal. >>> plus, the west hang on to win last night's all-star shootout. your first look at sports is straight ahead. your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional. cfp. let's make a plan. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thou

that warren buffett leaked to fortune magazine this annual letter that he sends out to the berkshire hathaway shareholders where he gives his advice on what you should invest in and it's kind of interesting you basically told him that instead of going for a treasury bonds and said i'm going for gold you should go towards things that actually produce stuff like maybe real estate maybe farmers maybe businesses do you think that's a good piece of advice. you know it probably is he's a pretty smart guy you know he also said trading in currency is risky which i think is true unless you're george soros who's brilliant at it but yeah sure but i mean the other thing to look at is that if you want to be a good corporate citizen you should invest in things that grow the economy at this point you know our government has a you know treasury bonds show people still trust the u.s. government enormously but that's not getting translated into investment in goods and services so i think and i hope that what he was really saying to investors and to the banking community was stop investing in things that don't

significantly lower our q scores compared to the prior year here the top five bank of america berkshire hathaway wells fargo goldman sachs j.p. morgan as i said look that's all financial services and there were a lot more companies too that fell into this decline but what is going to be the toll of the bad rap the high risks to that we're talking about not to mention problems going on all over the world in europe and japan that's one of the oil shock what is all this going to do to the economy for the rest of the year well max rod wolf is here to help us sort it out he's chief economist and senior analyst at green press capital he's going to tell us all about it so max thanks for being on the show thanks for turning me on to that reputation quotient that's really interesting my first question to you what impact is a bad rep have on the banks. thanks for having me on the show it's always a pleasure to join you i think the reputation does sort of speak and put stark numbers on a series of social changes we've seen which is kind of the warship period of the american c.e.o. which was a heyday across

according to berkshire hathaway's latest filing, berkshire has added a position in liberty media and made a near $1 billion investment in directv, raising its stake nearly fivefold. berkshire also picked up additional shares of general dynamics and took a new stake in dialysis provider davita. it reduced stakes in johnson & johnson and kraft foods. back to you. >> thank you very much. have a great day. >> you, too. >> thanks. >>> capital one has been given the green light to acquire ing direct. the federal reserve approved do the deal that would allow the bank to acquire ing for $9 million. the move will make capital one the fifth largest bank in the country. >>> he may not be the biggest dog in the house, but this year he is the top dog. >> best in show at the 136th annual westminster kennel club, america's dog show, is the pekignese. [ cheers ] >> look at all that hair. he is smiling behind all that hair. malachi is the first pekignese to win the prestigious title since 1990. the 4-year-old beat out a long line of purebreds in the finals. look at that walk -- bloop, bloop. a funny

>> i would rather be in berkshire hathaway. you have a lot of stuff going for you and stock not doing anything, and right into the warren buffett letter. by the way, on "squawk box" on monday. probably good things happening there. if he is going to spend all morning on "squawk" and the letter coming out. maybe that's the better play. >>> eric in new york. >> caller: big new york booyah. love your show. >> thank you. what's going on? >> my question about alcoa, symbol aa. i picked up the stock last week, when it went back on thursday. with the report released about a manufacturing slowdown in china and alcoa signing a joint venture with the chinese, how will this affect prices in general? and where is alcoa headed? >> oil prices still not going up, and very challenging circumstances a couple metals challen challenged, and aluminum is not going higher. be careful with alcoa. not having the breakout quarter i have been waiting for. >>> frank in maryland, please. frank. >> caller: hi there, dean cramer, cramer's college of investor

in his annual letter to berkshire hathaway investors he said he thought it would have recovered by nowtually he says the housing market has to come back because of human nature. he said while doubling up may be the initial reaction of some during the recession, living with the in-laws can quickly lose it's alures. berkshire generated more than $10 billion in net income last year. >>> we are gearing up for the oscars here on abc7. coverage kicks off today at 1:30 and the big show starts at 5:00 p.m. "seven lives" lizzy is in loves -- los angeles for ail the red carpet buzz and she shows us the excitement that's building. >> now less than 24 hours, still hollywood's biggest night, i'm here on the red carpet where they are putting on the finishing touches. earlier i talked to two oscar nominees, and fortunately -- unfortunately one didn't have much to say. >> did you have any idea you would actually get an oscar nomination for a role you had no speaking. >> i had no idea. >> what was your reaction? >> wonderful. it is a wonderful thing because it's very moving because it is your actual co

in his annual letter to berkshire hathaway investors he said he thought it would have recovered by nowlly he says the housing market has to come back because of human nature. he said while doubling up may be the initial reaction of some during the recession, living with the in-laws can quickly lose it's alures. berkshire generated more than $10 billion in net income last year. >>> we are gearing up for the oscars here on abc7. coverage conclusion off today at 1:30 and the big show starts at 5:00 p.m. "seven lives" lizzy is in loves for all the preparations and she shows us the excitement that's building. >> now less than 24 hours, still hollywood's biggest night, i'm here on the red carpet where they are putting on the finishing touches. earlier i talked to two oscar nominees, and fortunately -- unfortunately one didn't have much to say. >> did you have any idea you would actually get an oscar nomination for a role you had no speaking. >> i had no idea. >> what was your reaction? >> wonderful. it is a wonderful thing because it's very moving because it is your actual colleagues who dec

one is berkshire hathaway itself. ink berkshire might have 40% of business tied up in one way or another with the housing market. whether it's carpets or bedroom or paint. >> interesting point. >> they have a very, very big exposure to the housing market. wells would be certainly involved with lending. and in fact i almost thought that warren might have been taking on the role of chief loan officer -- chief mortgage banker at wells fargo he spoke so glowingly about the virtues of taking out a 30-year fixed both for your own home and for rental properties. but berkshire would be a terrific beneficiary. wells would be because in the event that the world was better for housing, i suspect the yield curve would become a little more steep in which case berkshire -- wells fargo's enormous deposit base would be worth more. >> indeed. gentlemen, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> and from billionaires to millionaires, tonight on "how i made my millions" we're going to look through the martini glass. hand paint

so companies like berkshire hathaway, which is one of our largest positions, but could you put coke, mcdonald's, nestle, incredible companies earning profits in every currency all over the word and trading at 10 to 12 times earnings and returning cash to shareholders. if you have a five to ten year horizon, i think blue chip global franchises like that are the way to go. >> let's get right to the stock. you've had a long relationship with, baby throueen through ups with netflix. what class and i thinked in has netfl netflix? >> as we did more work on the company, our view on it changed. and we'll probably discuss this in a little bit with someone who is pretty bearish on the stock i understand. netflix is a much better company with a much more open ended up side that be we had given it credit for when we were short it. we thought it was just a commodity business, customers could easily switch and take would soon be reflected this declining subscriber numbers. so we gained a real appreciation for the business which is why we covered the short and then when the sock felltock fell 75 re

berkshire hathaway's warren buffett said we own shares of jpmorgan.ore than 16% higher year to date. could boost sentiment even more. with all that said, are shares still a buy? let's ask jamie cox. you expect it will. what do you think is going to be said tomorrow. >> i don't think he's going to follow angelina jolie's lead and show leg. >> i kind of wish he would. >> you never know. but i do think he will expound upon his comments on housing. i think with both jpmorgan and the banks, i'm going to see what he has to say about housing. that really tells us what the future holds for banks. over the past couple months, had a tremendous run. dependent upon what happens results of the stress test and what housing does generally. apart from that i do think that you could continue to own jpmorgan from the div dent. and a slow incremental increase. >> it's karen. let me ask you something. how do you value this? what do you think is normalized earnings if we get back to a housing market that's not continuing to fall. what kind of multiple do you put on it? wh

let's get straight to brian sullivan with breaking news on berkshire hathaway. >> warren buffett and his crew, here's what they did. this is dated as of the end of the fourth quarter. new positions established in new companies. dva and lmca. by the way i've gone through a number of 13fs the last couple hours. liberty's been added by a number of companies. warren buffett added to his positions in coke, directv, cbs care mark, wells fargo, and visa. he cut but not eliminated stakes in johnson & johnson and kraft. then sold completely out of exxonmobil. that was a small stake. still exxon no longer part of the portfolio. i think that name you're showing davita the most interesting. not a typical company that warren buffett would invest in. new positions. i'll be back in a bit with more from david einhorn's green light capital. >> dva an unusual name. no surprise given his new manager he brought in. that was one of the few stocks that was in his portfolio. i believe liberty might have been there. but davita definitely was. >> i remember talking with ted wexler years ago about it. does ha

warren buffett add exposure to media companies according to berkshire hathaway's latest regulatory filing've added new position in liberty media as well and made a near $1 billion investment in direct tv raising its stake nearly five-fold in that company. berkshire also picked up additional shares of general dynamics and took a new stake in die a dialysis provider. reducing its stakes in johnson & johnson and kraft foods. >>> new details this morning about recent vandalism at a richmond elementary school. police say it is not the first time vandals broke in to the school and the two most recent incidents appear to be linked. the campus was first struck over the martin luther king jr. holiday and then again on sunday. in both instances the initial d.j. were tagged there. there is a $20,000 reward for any information from this. >>> 5:19 right now. a popular summer attraction in the tri-valley area may never open again. "contra kcosta times" reports some water slides need major repair work and will be shut down until fixed. they need to meet safety codes and provide handicap access. earlier

buy a couple of shares and work well with berkshire hathaway in the '80s. it can work for you now. just buy a couple shares. why doesn't the absence of a dividend bother me in apple. pretty simple. it all comes down to earnings, and earnings momentum. apple has it. but after reading warren buffett's report this weekend, i was surprised at how little earnings momentum berkshire has. instead warren buffett is focusing on building the book value. that's all well and good if the company is willing to buy back stock to take advantage of the discount because what it's worth and where it's trading, a discount that buffett chatters about through the investor letter. but buffett chose not to buy much stock at all. he is not putting his money where his mouth is. i regard that somewhat quizzical if you really believe your stock is undervalued. buffett highlights the ibm stock buyback as being terrific. buffett's maddeningly inconsistent on this issue. fact, if the market really cared about book value, then berkshire would be much higher, and it doesn't. that's why i suggested berkshire wants