Berkshire Hathaway has a new CEO. His name is Greg Abel. His primary responsibility appears to be nodding while a 95-year-old man and a portfolio manager named Ted make every single stock decision for a company worth three quarters of a trillion dollars.
Abel took over as CEO. The job came with an implied understanding that he would run things. Turns out running things means letting Buffett and Weschler handle the entire equity portfolio while he does whatever it is CEOs do when they're not allowed to touch anything important.
This is the corporate equivalent of hiring a head chef and then telling him he's not allowed in the kitchen. Abel gets the title. Buffett gets the stocks. Weschler gets to pick some stocks too. Abel gets to answer questions about why Buffett picked those stocks.
Somewhere right now a retail trader is reading this headline and thinking it's bullish. He's wrong, but that's never stopped him before. He'll probably buy more Berkshire on Monday because he thinks Buffett living forever is priced in at only a 40% premium.
The beautiful part is nobody's pretending this is unusual. Buffett's still calling shots on equities at an age when most men are calling bingo numbers. Abel's fine with it. Shareholders are fine with it. The market's fine with it. Everyone just accepts that the CEO job at Berkshire includes a footnote that reads "except for the stocks, Warren's got those."
Abel's learning what every successor learns: the promotion comes with an asterisk the size of Omaha.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
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