M21:25
好的，感谢这个问题。
Yeah, thanks for the question.
我，我得说，我不太确定你给我写信时是怎么表述的，也不太确定我回信时是怎么表述的，但 look-through，look-through book value 这个概念，其实意义不大。
I, I would say that I'm not sure how you phrased it when you wrote me and how I phrased it going back, but look-through, look-through book value would not mean much actually.
最好的企业，真正伟大的企业，根本不需要什么账面价值。
The very best businesses, the really wonderful businesses, require no book value.
它们——而且，我们也是——我们真正想买的企业，是那种能贡献越来越多现金、同时又不需要留存现金的企业；而留存现金，恰恰就是账面价值会随着时间累积起来的原因。
They— and, and we are— we want to buy businesses really that will deliver more and more cash and not need to retain cash, which is what builds up book value over time.
我承认，任何一个时点上，marketable securities 的价格，并不能很好地反映它们的内在价值。
Admittedly, the prices of marketable securities at any given time are not a great indication of their intrinsic value.
不过，拿它们来反映内在价值，还是远远好过看那些公司的账面价值。
They are far better though than the book value of those companies in indicating intrinsic value.
总的来说，Berkshire 的内在价值，以及它的变化趋势，确实比绝大多数公司更能通过账面价值反映出来。
Berkshire's intrinsic value in a very general way and trends in it are better reflected in book value than is the case at a very high percentage of companies.
但它仍然只是一个——它并不是一个很好的替代指标。
It's still a very— it's not a great proxy.
只是它已经是最好的了。
It's the best.
作为一个替代指标，它在判断方向上有用，从长期的大体幅度上也有些参考价值，但它不能替代内在价值本身。
It's a proxy that is useful in terms of direction, in terms of degree in a general way over time, but it's not a substitute for intrinsic value.
就 Berkshire 而言，我们刚接手 Berkshire 的时候，它的内在价值是低于账面价值的。
In our case, when we started with Berkshire, intrinsic value was below book value.
在一九六五年年初，我们这家公司并不值那个账面价值。
Our company was not worth book value in early 1965.
你不可能按账上记载的那个价格把那些资产卖出去。
You could not have sold the assets for that price that they were carried on the books.
你也不可能——没有人能通过对未来现金流的计算，得出那些资产值其账面记载价值这样的结论。
You could not have— no one could make a calculation in terms of future cash flows that would indicate that those assets were worth their carrying value.
而现在，确实，我们的这些业务价值比账面价值高得多，而且这是随着时间一点点形成的。
Now, it is true that our businesses are worth a great deal more than book value, and that's occurred gradually over time.
所以很显然，在过去若干年里，我们的内在价值不断增长，并且超过了账面价值，才走到今天这个位置。
So obviously, there are a number of years when our intrinsic value grew greater than our book value to get where we are today.
对 Berkshire 来说，账面价值并不是一个坏的起点。
Book value is not a bad starting point in the case of Berkshire.
但离终点还差得很远。
It's far from the finishing point.
这根本算不上任何一种出发点。你知道，不管是 Washington Post、Coca-Cola 还是 Gillette，我们都不会拿它当回事，这个因素我们是直接忽略的。
It's no starting point at all of any kind in, in, you know, whether it's the Washington Post or Coca-Cola or Gillette, it's a factor we ignore.
我们确实会看这家公司用已投入的资产能赚多少钱，以及新增投入的资产又能赚多少钱，但是账面价值这个东西，我们压根不会去考虑。
We do look at what the company is able to earn on invested assets and what it can earn on incremental invested assets, but the book value we do not give a thought to.
Charlie？
Charlie?
嗯，我觉得这显然是对的。
Well, I think that's obviously correct.
他明年还会再来的。
He'll come back next year.
一号。
Number one.