查询词典 Berkshire

A second complication arising from the merger is that the 1977 figures shown in this report are different from the 1977 figures shown in the report we mailed to you last year. Accounting convention requires that when two entities such as Diversified and Berkshire are merged, all financial data subsequently must be presented as if the companies had been merged at the time they were formed rather than just recently. So the enclosed financial statements, in effect, pretend that in 1977 the Diversified-Berkshire merger already had taken place, even though the actual merger date was December 30, 1978. This shifting base makes comparative commentary confusing and, from time to time in our narrative report, we will talk of figures and performance for Berkshire shareholders as historically reported to you rather than as restated after the Diversified merger.

合并案所引发的第二项影响则是今年报表中秀出1977年的数字与去年提供给各位同一年度的数字有所不同，会计原则要求当像多元零售与伯克希尔这样二个独立个体合并时，所有报告的财务数字都必须假设这两家公司原本就在一起，所以后续呈现所有数字，是假设这两家公司早在1977年就已经合并，虽然真正合并的日期是1978年的12月30日，这样的改变使得比较性的评论很容易产生混淆，因为以往的报告中，我们告诉各位的都是伯克希尔的历史记录，而非依照合并多元零售后重新修正数字。

Are his bailiwick. Some Berkshire managers talk over some of their decisions with me; some don't. It depends upon their personalities and, to an extent, upon their own personal relationship with me. If you should decide to do business with Berkshire, we would pay in cash. Your business would not be used as collateral for any loan by Berkshire. There would be no brokers involved.

我们会介入的领域是资金的规划与配置，以及高阶人员的任命与报酬，其余的人事，营运策略等那就是你自己的事，有些伯克希尔旗下事业的经理人会把他们所作的一些商业决定向我报告，有些则不会，这主要是视他们本身的个性，以及与我个人的私人关系而定。

In addition, on pages 63 - 69, we have rearranged Berkshire's financial data into four segments on a non-GAAP basis, a presentation that corresponds to the way Charlie and I think about the company. Look-Through Earnings Reported earnings are an inadequate measure of economic progress at Berkshire, in part because the numbers shown in the table presented earlier include only the dividends we receive from investees -- though these dividends typically

有关其它关系企业的信息大家可以在 39-54 页找到，包含依照一般公认会计准则编制的部门别信息，此外在 63-69 页，你还可以找到经过重编，依照伯克希尔四大部门编排的信息(非按一般公认会计准则编制)，这是查理跟我认为最能够完整呈现伯克希尔现况的模式。

For Berkshire's shareholders, myself included, the cost of this thumb-sucking has been huge. o Our consistently-conservative financial policies may appear to have been a mistake, but in my view were not. In retrospect, it is clear that significantly higher, though still conventional, leverage ratios at Berkshire would have produced considerably better returns on equity than the 23.8% we have actually averaged. Even in 1965, perhaps we could have judged there to be a 99% probability that higher leverage would lead to nothing but good. Correspondingly, we might have seen only a 1% chance that some shock factor, external or internal, would cause a conventional debt ratio to produce a result falling somewhere between temporary anguish and default.

另外我们一贯保守财务政策可能也是一种错误，不过就我个人的看法却不认为如此，回想起来，很明显的我们只要能够再多用一点财务杠杆操作(虽然较之他人还是很保守)，就可以得到远比现在每年平均 23.8%还要高的投资报酬率，即使是在 1965 年我们也可以百分之九十九地确定高一点的财务杠杆绝对只有好处没有坏处，但同时我们可能也会有百分之一的机会，不管是从内部或是外部所引发令人异想不到的因素，使得我们负债比率提高到介于一时冲高到负债倒闭之间。

At Hartside in Cumbria, for example, a white deer would suddenly flash through the woods; at Earley, in Berkshire, white-tailed eagles would fly above a clearing.

比如，在Cumbria郡的Hartside镇，一头白色的鹿会突然从眼前闪现，穿过树林；在Berkshire郡的Earley镇，白尾鹰会在空地上方盘旋。

Speaking for our own shares, Charlie and I have absolutely no complaint about these taxes. We know we work in a market-based economy that rewards our efforts far more bountifully than it does the efforts of others whose output is of equal or greater benefit to society. Taxation should, and does, partially redress this inequity. But we still remain extraordinarily well-treated. Berkshire and its shareholders, in combination, would pay a much smaller tax if Berkshire operated as a partnership or "S" corporation, two structures often used for business activities. For a variety of reasons, that's not 9 www.buffettism.com 巴菲特研究中心 Research Centre for Buffettism feasible for Berkshire to do.

经由我个人最喜爱的漫画短片，Li'l Abner，我有机会可以体会到延迟支付所得税的好处，虽然当时我没有好好地利用那次机会，为了让他的读者觉得自己很优越， Abner 一直快乐地 Li'l 维持单身，直到他为纽约一位女演员 Appassionatta 深深地着迷，但由于她只对百万富翁有兴趣，因此一贫如洗的 Abner 可以说是一点希望都没有，在遭到拒绝之后，Abner 跑去智能老人 Mose 那里请他指点迷津，结果这位圣贤对 Abner 说，很简单你只要能够将身上仅有的一块钱，复制 20 次， Appassionatta 自然就会投入到你的怀抱(1，2，4，8，…。，1，048，576)。

In 1955 to form our present company. Two years later, Malcolm became Berkshire Hathaway's Chairman, a position he held as well in early 1965 when he made it possible for Buffett Partnership, Ltd. to buy a key block of Berkshire stock owned by some of his relatives. This purchase gave our partnership effective control of the company. Malcolm's immediate family meanwhile kept its Berkshire stock and for the last 27 years has had the second-largest holding in the company, trailing only the Buffett family. Malcolm has been a joy to work with and we are delighted that the long-running relationship between the Chace family and Berkshire is continuing to a new generation.

年 Malcolm 进入伯克希尔针织工厂工作，后来该公司在 1955 年与 Hathaway 工业合并，成为现在的伯克希尔 Hathaway，之后两年他接任本公司董事长的职位，直到 1965 年由他一手促成巴菲特合伙事业买下他与亲人大部分的股权，而使得我们成功入主该公司，之后 Malcolm 家族在往后的 27 年内继续持有本公司的股份成为仅次于巴菲特家族，本公司第二大股东，Malcolm 一直是个很容易相处的伙伴，我们很高兴 Chase 家族与巴菲特家族的感情能够延续到下一代。

We are quite willing to accept huge risks. Indeed, more than any other insurer, we write high-limit policies that are tied to single catastrophic events. We also own a large investment portfolio whose market value could fall dramatically and quickly under certain conditions ( as happened on October 19, 1987). Whatever occurs, though, Berkshire will have the net worth, the earnings streams and the liquidity to handle the problem with ease.

我们很愿意去承担任何大型的风险，事实上，我们比任何保险公司承担更多单一事件最高上限的保单，我们同时持有大量与股市连动性极高的投资组合，在某些情况下，其股价可能会发生重挫，就像1987年十月股市大崩盘时那样，但不论发生什么事，Berkshire拥有庞大净值与稳定的收入来源以及足够的流动性资金，因应任何可能发生的状况。

We are quite willing to accept huge risks. Indeed, more than any other insurer, we write high-limit policies that are tied to single catastrophic events. We also own a large investment portfolio whose market value could fall dramatically and quickly under certain conditions (as happened on October 19, 1987). Whatever occurs, though, Berkshire will have the net worth, the earnings streams and the liquidity to handle the problem with ease.

我们很愿意去承担任何大型的风险，事实上，我们比任何保险公司承担更多单一事件最高上限的保单，我们同时持有大量与股市连动性极高的投资组合，在某些情况下，其股价可能会发生重挫，就像1987年十月股市大崩盘时那样，但不论发生什麼事， Berkshire 拥有庞大净值与稳定的收入来源以及足够的流动性资金，因应任何可能发生的状况。

In terms of dividends, you get into an expectational problem. Most public companies don't bounce around their dividend from year to year (although this is very common in private companies and Berkshire subsidiaries) because investors come to rely on it. So once you establish a dividend policy at a public company, think a long time before changing it.

就股利而言，你可能会陷入一个预期的迷思，大部份的上市公司的股利发放不太会跳来跳去(虽然这在私人公司以及Berkshire的子公司来说非常普遍)，因为投资人有依赖的倾向，所以一旦上市公司有意建立一股利政策的话，要改变请三思而为。

As she looked at Warrington's manly face, and dark, melancholy eyes, she had settled in her mind that he must have been the victim of an unhappy attachment.

每逢看到沃林顿那刚毅的脸，那乌黑、忧郁的眼睛，她便会相信，他一定作过不幸的爱情的受害者。

Maybe they'll disappear into a pothole.

也许他们将在壶穴里消失