Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders

This volume collects Buffett's annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in chronological order, from 1965 onward, without editorial rearrangement. Reading them in sequence gives something the thematic compilations cannot: the record of what Buffett said before outcomes were known, and the change in his approach as Berkshire grew.

The early letters cover the textile operations and the first insurance acquisitions in plain terms, including the difficulty of the textile business and the reasons Buffett kept it running longer than the economics justified. The 1970s and 1980s letters contain the clearest exposition of insurance float, of inflation's effect on business value, of the difference between accounting earnings and economic earnings, and of goodwill. The 1990s and 2000s letters cover derivatives, the technology bubble, corporate governance failures and the 2008 crisis in real time.

Several letters function as standalone essays. The 1977 letter on inflation and equities, the 1983 appendix on goodwill, the 1984 discussion of dividend policy and share repurchases, the 2002 warning about derivatives as financial weapons of mass destruction, and the 2014 fiftieth anniversary letters by both Buffett and Munger are the ones most often cited.

The letters are free on Berkshire's website, so the value of a bound edition is convenience. Reading them in full is a substantial commitment and much is repetition, since Buffett restates principles annually for new shareholders. The commentary on specific holdings is dated. What survives is the recorded reasoning about capital allocation, accounting and market behaviour across sixty years, checkable against what happened.

Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway; chief executive 1970-2025; earlier general partner, Buffett Partnership Ltd.

The Berkshire shareholder letters are a primary source in their own right, read and cited far beyond investing.

Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett Partnership Ltd.