Back to semi-normal

With Charlie Munger sitting next to Warren Buffett at a table featuring a box of See's peanut brittle and Diet Coke cans, it looked and sounded more like a normal Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting than last year's, when Buffett had only one of his vice-chairmen, Greg Abel, by his side.

But, like last year, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic meant the usual tens of thousands of Berkshire shareholders weren't there to laugh at the jokes or applaud the pronouncements.

The usual panel of journalists was replaced by a single questioner, with CNBC's Becky Quick reprising last year's role, although this time she was in the same room, not on a remote video feed.

And, in a first, the meeting was held in Los Angeles, to make it easier for Munger, who lives there, to attend.

"That was probably a mistake"

Buffett conceded that selling just under 4% of Berkshire's massive Apple stake in last year's third quarter was "probably a mistake," and that Munger, "in his usual low-key way" let Buffett know he thought it was a mistake.

But on the liquidation of all of Berkshire's airline holdings earlier in 2020, Buffett has no regrets. "I still wouldn't want to buy the airlines business."

He did, however, concede Berkshire could have been doing more buying when stock prices dropped dramatically last March as the pandemic was taking hold.

"Looking back ... definitely we could have done better things."

Overall, "I do not consider it a great moment in Berkshire's history. But also, we've got more net worth than any company in the United States ... and we've got six or $700 billion of generally good businesses."

"People that are on the extremes of both sides are a little nuts"

Answering a question about whether Berkshire's purchases of Chevron stock indicate he thinks climate change concerns are overblown, Buffett said he would "hate to have all the hydrocarbons banned in three years ... it wouldn't work."

But, "What's happening will be adapted to over time, just as we've adapted to all kinds of things."

"I think we're going to need a lot of hydrocarbon for a long time, and we'll be very glad we've got them. But I do think that the world's moving away from them, too. And that could change. I don't like making the moral judgments on stocks in terms of actually running the businesses."

As for Chevron, it's "not an evil company in the least. And I have no compunction about owning" shares.

"Asinine" to have every subsidiary report on climate risks

Buffett's take on a shareholder proposal asking for Berkshire to report on how it's dealing with climate change is that it's "asinine" to have all the company's subsidiaries "show a bunch of figures" when only Berkshire Hathaway Energy and the BNSF railroad have significant carbon footprints, and they've already been open about what they're doing on climate change issues.

And, Buffett complained, individual shareholders, "the people that bought Berkshire with own money," oppose the proposals.

It's the institutional investors, "people who've never put a dime of their own money into Berkshire," who favor them, and "I don't think they've read our annual reports. And I don't think they've read the reports of Berkshire Hathaway Energy" about how, for example, its doing more in high-voltage transmission that any other company in the country.

Buffett did not address a second shareholder proposal on employee diversity.

Both were rejected by a majority of shareholders.

"If you put a gun to my head ..."

Buffett said the recent popularity of SPACs has made it even harder to find a good business to acquire at a reasonable price. ("It's a killer.")

That, he said, is because a SPAC generally needs to do a deal within two years or return the money to investors, making them less picky about what they buy and how much they spend. "Frankly, we're not competitive with that."

"If you put a gun to my head and said, 'You've got to buy a big business in two years,' you know, I'd buy one. But it wouldn't be much of one."

Even so, Buffett predicted, SPACs "won't go on forever."

"Of course, I hate the Bitcoin success"

Given an opportunity to repeat his criticism of cryptocurrencies as an investment, Buffett said he'd "dodge" the question because there are lots of people who own bitcoin and only a few who are short, "so we've got a choice of making 400,000 people mad at us and unhappy or making two people happy. And that's just a dumb equation."

Munger didn't dodge.

"Of course I hate the Bitcoin success. And I don't welcome a currency that's so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth, nor do I like just shoveling out a few extra billions and billions and billions of dollars to somebody who just invented a new financial product out of thin air...

"The whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization."

"It's deeply wrong"

Buffett didn't dodge a question on Robinhood, saying while there's nothing immoral or illegal about trading as a form of gambling, "I hope we don't have more of it."

Again, Munger wasn't as reserved.

"I think it's just God-awful that something like (Robinhood) would draw investment from civilized man and decent citizens. It's deeply wrong."

"A different rate if Elon was on board or not on board"

Asked if Berkshire would insure an Elon Musk mission to Mars, insurance chief Ajit Jain replied coolly, "This is an easy one. No, thank you. I'll pass."

Buffett got laughs when he interjected, "I would say it would depend on the premium. And I would say that I would probably have a somewhat different rate if Elon was on board or not on board."

"Greg will keep the culture"

In a discussion about whether Berkshire Hathaway is getting too big to manage, Munger said its decentralized structure means "we can keep doing it for a long, long time."

When Buffett noted that decentralization doesn't work if you don't have the right kind of corporate culture, Munger replied, "Yeah, but we do ... and Greg will keep the culture."

If that was an unintentional signal that Greg Abel has been chosen to be the next CEO of Berkshire, the selection would not be an enormous surprise.

Since Abel is responsible for all of Berkshire's non-insurance operating businesses, he's been seen as the leading candidate to take over when Buffett eventually leaves the post.

And ....

• CNBC.com's meeting recap
• This is the special lesson Warren Buffett gave new stock investors at his annual meeting
• Berkshire Hathaway’s operating earnings jump, Buffett continues to buy back stock

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch