M20:33
嗯，我其实不觉得我们提供的信息变少了。
Well, I don't think we actually provide less information.
我们可能只是每年呈现的形式有一点不一样。
We may present it in a somewhat different form from year to year.
就拿今年来说吧，我，你知道，我还是像往常一样，在心里把这封信当成是写给 Doris 和 Bertie——我的姐妹们——开头的，是想告诉她们，我会告诉任何一个把自己很大一部分净资产放在 Berkshire 里的人些什么。
Just this year, for example, I, you know, I started my letter as usual in my mind as saying, dear Doris and Bertie, my sisters, to tell them what I would tell anybody that had a very significant proportion of their net worth in Berkshire.
这个人得是聪明的，但又不懂我们各种业务里的那些行话；因为他们确实投了很大一笔钱，所以也愿意读很多文字。
Who was intelligent, did not know all the lingo of our various businesses, that would read a lot of words because they had— they did have a large investment.
所以如果我解释一件事，而且解释得还不错，那她们就能明白我在说什么。
So if I explained anything and did a decent job, that they would understand what I was talking about.
我会用我觉得容易理解的语言去告诉她们——也就是让那一百多万名股东里，相当大一部分、对会计这些东西理解程度各不相同的人，都能听懂。
And I tell them that in the language that I think will be understandable to the— to a significant percentage of a million-plus people who have all kinds of different understanding of accounting and all that sort of thing.
我会告诉他们，如果我是站在对面、作为听的人，我自己想听到的信息。
I tell them information I would want to hear on the other side.
当然，如果我是竞争对手，想知道我们某一家家具店赚了多少钱之类的，你知道，我可能会很喜欢这些信息，但如果你说的是一家五千亿美元规模的组织，这些其实没什么真正的影响。
Now, if I was a competitor and I wanted to know what one of our furniture stores was earning or something of the sort, you know, I might love it, but it doesn't really make any difference if you're talking about a $500 billion organization.
如果你理解我们的保险业务，从给你完整图景这个角度来说，我觉得用三页、四页或者五页，其实就够了。你知道，关于 loss reserve development，SEC 本来就要求我们披露一大堆内容。
If you understand our insurance business, and in terms of giving you the picture, I think in 3 or 4 or 5 pages, you know, actually we've got a whole bunch of stuff that's required by the SEC about loss reserve development.
我，我觉得你完全可以写出一份三百页的报告，但它传递的信息可能比一份五十页的报告还少，而且还会把读者给弄丢。
I, I think you can write a 300-page report that gives a whole lot less information than a 50-page report, and you lose people.
所以我，我还是尽量像我说的那样，在我脑子里，把她们当成我的姐妹。
So I, I try to tell them, like I say, in my mind, it's my sisters.
我会尽量告诉她们，如果这是我们的一家私人企业，她们每个人各持有三分之一，我也持有三分之一，那我会对她们说些什么。
I try to tell them what I would tell them if we had a private business and they owned a third of it each and I owned a third.
然后每年一次，她们希望了解最新情况，但她们不知道 combined ratio 是什么意思，因为那是个大家都在用的傻术语，其实叫 profit margin 就行了。
And once a year, they like to get filled in, and they don't know what a combined ratio means because it's a dumb term that everybody uses and they call it a profit margin.
她们也不知道铁路业务里的 operating ratio 是什么意思，而且那也是个过时的术语。
They don't know what the operating ratio is in the railroad business, and it's an obsolete term.
这个词最好也叫 profit margin，但那些行话——我们这封信不是写给分析师看的。
It'd be better to call that a profit margin, but the lingo— we're not writing it for analysts.
我们是写给股东看的，我们是想告诉他们一些事情，让他们能把这些信息拼起来看。
We are writing it for shareholders, and we're trying to tell them something so they can make an addition.
这样他们不仅能看清我们现在拥有什么，也能明白我们是怎么思考经营的，我们长期想做什么。
They can not only get the picture as to what we own now, but how we think about the operation, what we're trying to do over time.
而且我们每年都尽力把这件事做到最好。
And we try to do the best job we can every year.
而且我不认为——我觉得如果有人对那些细枝末节特别感兴趣，那他其实是在错过整体图景。因为你在一九六五年，完全可能知道我们纺织业务的每一个细节，我们甚至可以告诉你衬里面料赚了多少、手帕赚了多少。
And I don't think it— I think if somebody is terribly interested in the details, they really are missing the whole picture, because you could have known every detail of our textile business in 1965, but we could give you the information as how much we made from linings and how much we made from handkerchiefs.
对。
Yeah.
但那——你会完全活在另一个世界里。
And it would— you'd be in a different world.
我是说，真正重要的是，我们怎么看待资金运作，以及随着时间推移，我们会怎么处理这些事情。
I mean, the important thing was how we looked at running money and what we would do about things over time.
而且这点就是——如果你在一九八零年或者八五年读这些内容，如果你特别去找 See's Candies 往东部扩张时经营得怎么样的各种细节，那你其实很可能会被误导。
And it just— you could have gotten very misled if you'd written it— if you'd read it in 1980 or '85 and you looked for great detail on how See's Candies was doing as they moved eastward, you know.
我们会告诉你，总体来说，那次向外扩张地盘是失败的；但如果展开讲一大堆细节，分析师也许会觉得很有意思，可对股东来说，他们真正要做的判断，是谁在替他们管钱、是怎么管的、过去这些年做了什么、未来希望做什么，以及该怎么衡量这些事。
We'll tell you that overall that failed in terms of moving out the territory, but going into a whole lot of detail that might be very interesting to an analyst, but really for the shareholder, they've got to make a decision as to who's running their money and how they're running it and what they've done over time and what they hope to do in the future and how to measure that.
再说一次，我们这封信是写给个人投资者的。
And again, we're writing it for the individual.
Charlie？
Charlie?