巴菲特：我的接班人是个男的

    我失去了什么？

    超额回报。你跑赢市场的能力。

    哦。但我想，有人就此写了一篇文章作为回应。不是我写的。我们会找出来是谁写的。

    人们一直把伯克希尔股东大卫•威特描述为美国中部一位举止温和的会计师。他想收回一点儿投资，你为什么不遂他的愿呢？

    我在年报里用了很长的篇幅来探讨分红和回购。就在几年前。我非常详细地解释了为什么他不拿（分红）更好。我们现在正在投票，而且你会发现，股东们在这方面的感受很有意思。

    你愿意缴个税，但讨厌缴企业税，为什么？

    我绝不会多缴一分钱的个税，我们也绝不会多缴一分钱的企业税。原因非常简单。就我自己来说，我曾说过，只要有哪位参议员自愿多纳税，他缴多少我就缴多少；我还说过，要是参议员米奇•麦康诺自愿多缴税，他缴多少，我就缴三倍，但他们一直没给我机会来兑现承诺。

    实际上，看过之后你就会发现，（伯克希尔的）税率挺高的。不过，如果能少缴，我就会少缴。我会在法律允许的范围内尽可能地降低伯克希尔的税率。比如说，如果修建了许多风力发电站，我们就可以在风能方面获得退税。这是我们建设风电站的唯一原因。不退税，风电站就没有意义。

    在今年的致股东信件中，你说公共养老金的问题正在变得越来越严重。你觉得应该怎么解决这个问题？

    解决方法是改变承诺，或者多收税。但问题在于，所有政客在台上的时间只有一、两年。他们的最佳解决方案就是什么也不干，因为他们早晚会下台。这不是一夜之间出现的问题，这不是说为什么没电了，或者为什么街上的雪没人铲。这是世界上最容易被耽误的问题。

    在奥马哈，我不愿意更改已经向工薪阶层做出的公开承诺。所以我想应该多收税。但在许多市和州这样做都不会见效。和税收规模相比，这个问题过于严重。在底特律，不管收多少税也不足以兑现他们在养老金方面的承诺。他们承诺的太多了。

    美国的工作机会向海外流失，美国公司制造的产品卖给美国人却不缴税，你觉得我们应该怎么办？或者我们是否应该采取行动？

    局面已经非常难以控制，原因是有些国家和地区的税率是这么的低。有些公司的借口是，他们的利润来自爱尔兰或者百慕大群岛，而实际上他们的很大一部分产品都在美国国内制造，涉及知识产权的时候更是这样。这些公司在海外积累了巨额现金，然后它们会说，给我们一个免税期，我们就会把这些钱带回来。但如果它们发现可以不把资金转回国内，满足它们的要求只会让它们在海外变本加厉地赚钱。这是一个疯狂的局面，而且已经存在了很多年。到了某个时候，（我们）的确需要认真研究一下涉及这方面的税法。

    你在去年的股东大会上说自己担心美联储（Federal Reserve）终止量化宽松政策和刺激性货币政策。你认为美联储现在已经退出这项政策了吗？你仍然担心今后可能出现的问题吗？

    嗯，我曾说过，这不亚于一场有趣的电影，原因是风险很高，而且我们对结局一无所知。现在我要说，情况依然如此。但到目前为止我们还没有发现什么与此有关的重大问题。

    也就是说你已经不那么担心量化宽松政策的终结了？

    没错。它仍然是一场有趣的电影。我还是不知道结局怎样。正因为这样，我才觉得它是这么的有意思。

    非常感谢。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    Lost my what?

    Lost your alpha. Your ability to outperform the market.

    Yeah. But I think some fellow wrote a response to that. It wasn't me. We'll find out.

    David Witt, who had been described as a mild-mannered accountant in Middle America and a Berkshire shareholder, and would like a little bit of his money back. Why won't you give it to him?

    I wrote a long essay on dividends and repurchases in the annual report. It was just a year ago. And I explained in great detail why I think he is better off if he doesn't get [a dividend]. We are having the vote now, and you will find it interesting how the shareholders feel about that.

    Why do you love paying individual taxes but hate paying corporate taxes?

    I will not pay a dime more of individual taxes than I owe, and I won't pay a dime more of corporate taxes than we owe. And that's very simple. In my own case, I offered one time to match a voluntary payment that any Senators pay, and I offered to triple any voluntary payment that Mitch McConnell made, but they never took me up on it.

    Actually, [Berkshire's] tax rate is pretty high if you look at it. But if it could be lower, I would have it lower. I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate. For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit.

    In the shareholder letter this year, you talked about a growing problem with public pension plans. What do you think the solution is?

    The solution is to either change the promises or tax more. But the trouble is for any given politician he's only going to be there for a year or two. His best solution is to do nothing because he will be gone. And it isn't the kind of problem that you wake up tomorrow and causes the lights to go out or the streets to not get shoveled. It is the easiest problem in the world to postpone.

    In Omaha, I would not like to change the promises that have been made to the people who work publicly. So I think we should probably tax more. But that won't work in many municipalities or states. The problems are too big relative to the tax base. You can't tax enough in Detroit to pay the pensions that have been promised. They have gone too far.

    What do you think we should do, or should we do something about the off-shoring of U.S. jobs, and U.S. corporations not paying taxes on goods they are producing and selling to Americans?

    It has just gotten way out of hand because tax rates are so low in certain countries. And there are some companies, particularly when you are dealing with intellectual property, where you can set up a rationale to say your earnings are taking place in Ireland or Bermuda or something like that, when they are really originating in large part here. Those companies pile up huge cash balances overseas, and then they say, Give us a tax free period and we will bring it back. But that would of course just induce them to do more of that over there once they find out they can get away with it. It's a crazy situation, but it has developed over the years. That part of the tax code has really got to be looked at hard at some point.

    At last year's annual meeting, you said you were concerned about the Federal Reserve's exit from quantitative easing and their monetary stimulus. How do you think the Fed has done exiting it, and are you still concerned about what might happen?

    Well, I said it's a really interesting movie because the stakes are high and we don't know the ending. But I would say that's still the situation. But so far we haven't seen any big problems associated with it.

    So are you less concerned about the end of QE?

    No. It's still an interesting movie. I don't know how it comes out. That's why I find it so interesting.

    Thanks.