Siggy already linked this news (though via CNBC, #894190), so I thought I'd just supplement with some FT takes. (Unfamiliar with the journalist, Eric Platt.)
Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile soared to a record $334.2bn at the end of last year, as Warren Buffett dumped stocks and raked in billions of dollars in interest from the group’s vast holdings of Treasury bills.
Buffett gonna be the buyer-of-last-resort for Treasuries?! (not that Fed is tightening and foreign buyers disappeared):
“We were aided by a predictable large gain in investment income as Treasury Bill yields improved and we substantially increased our holdings of these highly-liquid short-term securities.” Berkshire’s increasing shift into US government debt has been a boon for Berkshire since the Federal Reserve began lifting interest rates in 2022.
While these are ginormous numbers for basically anyone we should keep in mind that 300bn for Berkshire isn't that much; Berkshire maintains about a listed portfolio of about the same magnitude (graph below from Forbes:) as well as another ~600bn on its balance sheet -- which I suppose are the wholly owned subsidiaries etc.
So yea, a little bit terrifying that the master of value-investing deals can't find anything to hold better than depreciating paper... On the upside, he admits as much himself:
“Paper money can see its value evaporate if fiscal folly prevails,” he wrote. “In some countries, this reckless practice has become habitual, and, in our country’s short history, the US has come close to the edge. Fixed-coupon bonds provide no protection against runaway currency.”
He'll be one of us in no-time...
/J
non-paywalled here: https://archive.md/67r70