伯克希尔·哈撒韦Berkshire Hathaway（BRK-A）2019年年度报告（英文版）（144页）.pdf

1、BERKSHIREHATHAWAYINC. 2019 ANNUAL REPORT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. 2019 ANNUAL REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS Berkshires Performance vs. the S 1967, 15 months ended 12/31. 2 BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: Berkshire earned $81.4 billion in 2019 according to generally

2、accepted accounting principles (commonly called “GAAP”). The components of that figure are $24 billion of operating earnings, $3.7 billion of realized capital gains and a $53.7 billion gain from an increase in the amount of net unrealized capital gains that exist in the stocks we hold. Each of those

3、 components of earnings is stated on an after-tax basis. That $53.7 billion gain requires comment. It resulted from a new GAAP rule, imposed in 2018, that requires a company holding equity securities to include in earnings the net change in the unrealized gains and losses of those securities. As we

4、stated in last years letter, neither Charlie Munger, my partner in managing Berkshire, nor I agree with that rule. The adoption of the rule by the accounting profession, in fact, was a monumental shift in its own thinking. Before 2018, GAAP insisted with an exception for companies whose business was

5、 to trade securities that unrealized gains within a portfolio of stocks were never to be included in earnings and unrealized losses were to be included only if they were deemed “other than temporary.” Now, Berkshire must enshrine in each quarters bottom line a key item of news for many investors, an

6、alysts and commentators every up and down movement of the stocks it owns, however capricious those fluctuations may be. Berkshires 2018 and 2019 years glaringly illustrate the argument we have with the new rule. In 2018, a down year for the stock market, our net unrealized gains decreased by $20.6 b