在伯克希爾·哈撒韋公司（Berkshire Hathaway）的年度會議上，沃倫·巴菲特和他的商業伙伴查理·芒格會針對股東提出的任何問題，提供觀點和建議。

2017年的年度會議于上周六在奧馬哈舉行，涉及的內容五花八門，包括谷歌（Google）和亞馬遜（Amazon）的股價、富國銀行（Wells Fargo）、人工智能、共和黨醫療法案，以及伯克希爾·哈撒韋的股票是否進行分紅。

不過年度會議上最值得關注的，是86歲的巴菲特和93歲的芒格如何把對復雜技術問題的回答提煉成意味深長、簡潔有力的智慧結晶，甚至讓新手投資者也能理解。

為此，我們編輯了2017年伯克希爾·哈撒韋年度會議上巴菲特對于熱門話題的經典語錄。畢竟，他被稱作奧馬哈的先知不是沒有道理的。

關于富國銀行的虛假賬戶丑聞

“富國銀行犯了三個嚴重的錯誤，其中一個比其他的更加糟糕……主要問題在于他們知道以后沒有采取行動……如果存在嚴重的問題，首席執行官總會得到風聲。那就是關鍵點了，首席執行官必須采取措施。如果他們了解情況的話，就會發現這是個極其巨大的錯誤，而且我肯定他們得到了一些消息，但是他們忽略了這些，把它們扔回給下級去處理了。”

關于人工智能和自動駕駛汽車

“我要說，自動駕駛卡車給北伯靈頓（Burlington Northern）帶來的威脅要比機遇更多。而且如果無人駕駛卡車普及開來，那只可能是因為它們更加安全，也就是說汽車導致的損失給整體經濟帶來的代價會降低，這也會導致Geico的保險收入減少。所以總結起來就是：無人汽車的普及會傷害我們，如果這種普及蔓延到了卡車，那還會傷害我們的汽車保險業務。”

關于可口可樂和節食減肥

“我想說，我這一輩子都在吃自己喜歡的東西。可口可樂，這種12盎司裝的可口可樂，我一天要喝五罐。其中大概有1.2盎司的糖。去看看別人如何攝取糖類和卡路里，你會發現來源各不一樣。我認為我喜歡從可樂中獲取卡路里，我喜歡這樣……如果你告訴我，只吃西藍花或蘆筍或其他什么東西，就能比攝取我喜歡的可口可樂、牛排、土豆煎餅等多活一年的話（而且我也不認為這樣就能多活），那我寧愿選擇吃我喜歡的，享受吃的過程，而不是再多活一年。”

“而且我確實認為選擇權應該在我。也許糖類有害，也許你想呼吁政府禁止糖類……但我認為可口可樂對于美國和世界都有正面的影響。而且我真的不希望有人說我不能喝可樂。我覺得活得高興也是長壽的因素之一。”

關于IBM和蘋果

“六年前我購買IBM股票，是認為他們在這些年會有更好的表現。說到IBM和蘋果（Apple），我認為這兩家是很不一樣的公司……我在前一家公司上看走了眼，之后大家可以看看我對后一家公司的做法是否正確。不過我并不認為他們是一種類型的公司，當然也不認為他們風馬牛不相及。他們的關系在這兩種之間。”

關于共和黨的醫療法案和稅務

“醫療費用是影響經濟競爭力的寄生蟲。但稅務系統沒有損害伯克希爾在全球的競爭力，或是導致類似的問題。我們的醫療費用出現了驚人的增長，而且還會提高許多……這個問題正在給社會帶來很多麻煩，未來麻煩還會更多，無論是哪一個黨派執政都是如此。”

“至于幾天前通過的新法案和奧巴馬政府的（可支付醫保）法案，這很有趣。我能告訴你的就是，新法案對個人的影響會體現在稅費上，如果法案得到實施，我去年的聯邦所得稅就會降低17%。所以對于我這樣的人來說，新法案大大減少了稅費。”

關于亞馬遜和首席執行官杰夫·貝佐斯

“他在公司的兩大業務幾乎同時從零開始時，就擔任首席執行官了。英特爾（Intel）的安迪·格魯夫曾經說過，如果你有一顆銀色子彈，射出去就能消滅掉一個競爭者，那你會選誰？我認為，云計算和零售領域都會有很多人會選擇向他射出這顆銀色子彈……我們完全錯過了他。我們從來沒有持有過亞馬遜的股份……我太遲鈍了，沒有意識到在發生什么。我欣賞杰夫，但我沒想到他能取得這么大的成功，我甚至沒有去想他在云服務上做到這些的可能性。我從來沒有考慮過持有亞馬遜的股份。”

“如果你以前問我，在他經營零售業的時候，還能不能做些事情來顛覆科技行業，我會認為這個成功率不大。我確實低估了他們出色的執行力。有夢想是一回事，能做好是另一回事……（亞馬遜的股價）看起來總是很高，我真的也沒想到他能做到這一切。他真的很棒，不過在三年、五年、八年前，我不認為他能達到如今這樣的地位。”

關于美聯航和航空業

“我們實際上是四大航空公司最大的股東，這件事更多是這個行業的警笛……我們購買美國運通（American Express）、美國聯合航空（United Airlines）或可口可樂的股份，并不是因為我們認為他們絕對不會遭遇問題，也不會有競爭……你列出了一系列導致糟糕業績的因素。這是個競爭激烈的行業，問題是它是否像過去一樣，競爭是趨向于自殺性的。我的意思是，當你發現所有大型運營商和幾十家小型運營商都開始走向破產，那你可能投資了一個錯誤的行業……老實說，我認為他們可能會在未來五至十年中提高載客量，而不是推出歷史新低的折扣，讓所有運營商都走向破產。他們是否會繼續在票價上自取滅亡，還有待觀察……在未來十年內，整個行業的價格敏感性要比過去100年更高，這并不是一件易事，不過這方面的情況已經有所改善……不過這與收購See’s Candies不一樣。”

“我喜歡這種情況。顯然，購買四家航空公司的股票，表明我們很難辨別誰會做得最好……會有低成本的競爭者加入，比如國際上的Spirits和美國的捷藍（JetBlues）等，不過我猜測擁有所有這四家公司的股票，會讓我們有更高的收入。問題在于他們的營業比率——利潤越高，他們的凈發股票就會越少。所以即便他們的實際價值就和現在的市值一樣，我們也能掙到相當多的錢。不過長期來看這并不容易。”

關于伯克希爾·哈撒韋的未來

“我認為如果我今晚去世了，明天股價就會上漲。”

關于裁員和聯手3G收購卡夫·亨氏

“我們一點都不享受提高生產率的過程。因為這讓人很不愉快……在一家裁員的公司，不如在一家擴大招聘的公司那么有趣。所以查理和我會避免讓伯克希爾收購那些主要盈利點在于員工更少的公司。”

“不過我認為，提高生產率的想法是利于社會的，而且3G的員工在這方面做得很好……當卡夫·亨氏（Kraft Heinz）發現他們可以用更少的人做成事情時，就像美國公司做了幾百年的那樣去裁員了。老實說我不喜歡那樣……不過改變就是痛苦的。我認為提高生產率對于美國來說是必要的，因為只有你的人均生產率提升了，人均消費才可能提升。”

查理·芒格：“我沒覺得提高生產率有什么問題。另一方面，關于反生產率的宣傳也不少。你做對了，也并不代表你得一直去那么做……對于經歷裁員的人來說，這實在是非常不愉快。那么為什么要陷入這種反復讓我們進行裁員的公司呢？我們之前在情非得已時有過裁員。我認為3G沒有任何道德錯誤，不過我確實看到了它引發的政治反應，這對任何人都沒有好處。”（財富中文網）

譯者：嚴匡正

Every year at the Berkshire Hathawayannual meeting, Warren Buffett and his business partner, Charlie Munger, deliver their views and advice on just about any subject their shareholders ask about.

The 2017 meeting, which took place in Omaha Saturday, covered topics as diverse as Google and Amazonstock, Wells Fargo, artificial intelligence, the Republican health care bill, and whether Berkshire Hathaway stock will ever pay a dividend.

But what is most remarkable about the annual meeting is the way Buffett, 86, and Munger, 93, distill their responses to complex, technical questions into eloquent and pithy nuggets of wisdom that even novice investors can understand.

To that end, we've compiled the best Buffett quotes on the hottest topics from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting 2017. After all, they don't call Buffett the Oracle of Omaha for nothing.

On Wells Fargo's Fake Accounts Scandal

"At Wells Fargo (wfc, -0.13%) there were three very significant mistakes, but there was one that was worse than all the others ... The main problem was that they didn’t act when they learned about it ... at some point if there's a major problem, the CEO will get wind of it. And at that moment, that’s the key to everything, because the CEO has to act. It was a huge, huge, huge error if they were getting, and I'm sure they were getting, some communications and they ignored them or they just sent them back down to somebody down below."

On Artificial Intelligence and Self-Driving Cars

"I would say that driverless trucks are a lot more of a threat than an opportunity to the Burlington Northern. And I would say that if driverless trucks became pervasive, it would only be because they are safer, and that would mean that the overall economic cost of auto-related losses had gone down, and that would drive down the premium income of Geico. So I would say both of those: Autonomous vehicles widespread would hurt us, if they spread to trucks, and they would hurt our auto insurance business."

On Coca-Cola and Dieting

"I would say I've been eating things I like to eat all my life. And Coca-Cola(ko, +0.46%), this Coca-Cola 12 ounces, I drink about five a day. It has about 1.2 ounces of sugar in it. And if you look at what different people get their sugar and calories from, they get them from all kinds of things. I happen to believe I like to get my calories from this, I enjoy it ... If you told me that I would live one year longer—and I don’t think I would—if I'd live one year longer if I ate only broccoli or asparagus or whatever, or if I eat what I like including Coca-Colas and steak and hash browns, I'd rather eat what I like and enjoy eating what I like than eat something I don't and live another year.

"And I do think that choice should be mine. Maybe sugar is harmful and maybe you'd encourage the government to ban sugar ... But I think Coca-Cola has been a very positive factor in the country and the world. And I really don’t want anyone telling me I can’t drink it. I think there’s something in longevity of feeling happy about your life."

On IBM and Apple

"When I bought IBM(ibm, -0.34%) six years ago, I thought it would do better in the six years that have elapsed than it has. In terms of IBM and Apple(aapl, +2.72%), I regard them as being quite different businesses ... I was wrong on the first one, and we’ll find out whether I'm right or wrong on the second. But I don’t regard them as apples and apples, and I don't quite regard them as apples and oranges. It's somewhere in between on that."

On the Republican Health Care Bill and Taxes

"Medical costs are the tapeworm of economic competitiveness. But the tax system is not crippling Berkshire’s competitiveness around the world or anything of the sort. Our health costs have gone up incredibly and will go up a lot more ... And that is a problem that society is having trouble with and is going to have more trouble with, regardless of which party is in power, or anything of the sort.

"In terms of the new act which was passed a couple days ago, vs. the Obama administration [Affordable Care] act, it’s a very interesting thing. All I can tell you is the net effect of that act on one person is that my taxes, my federal income taxes, would have gone down 17% last year if what was proposed went into effect. So it is a huge tax cut for guys like me."

On Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos

"He has been the CEO almost simultaneously of two businesses starting from scratch. Andy Grove at Intel (intc, -0.76%) used to say if you had a silver bullet and you could shoot it and get rid of one of your competitors who would it be? I think that both in the cloud and in retail, there are a lot of people who would aim the silver bullet at Jeff ... And we missed it entirely. We never owned a share of Amazon (amzn, +1.44%) ... I was too dumb to realize what was going to happen. I admired Jeff, but I did not think he’d succeed on the scale that he has, and I didn’t even think of the possibility that he’d do the things with the cloud services. I never even considered buying Amazon.

"If you asked me if while he was building up the retail operation he’d also be doing something that would disrupt the tech industry, that would have been a long shot for me. I really underestimated the brilliance of the execution. It's one thing to dream about, it's another thing to do it ... [Amazon stock] always looked expensive, and I really never thought he would do what he did today. I thought he was really brilliant, but I didn't think he'd be where he is today when I looked at it three, five, eight years ago anyway."

On United Airlines and the Industry

"We actually are the largest holder of the four largest airlines, and that is much more of an industry call ... We did not buy American Express or United Airlines or Coca-Cola with the idea they would never have problems or never have competition ... And you’ve named a number of factors that just make for a terrible economics. It’s a fiercely competitive industry, the question is whether it's a suicidally competitive industry, which it used to be. I mean, when you get virtually every one of the major carriers and dozens and dozens and dozens of minor carriers going bankrupt, there ought to come a point you find that maybe you're in the wrong industry ... I think it's fair to say they will operate at higher degrees of capacity over the next five or 10 years than the historical rates which caused all of them to go broke. Whether they will do suicidal things in terms of pricing remains to be seen ... It is no cinch that the industry will have some more pricing sensibility in the next 10 years than they had in the last 100 years, but the conditions have improved for that ... But it's not like buying See’s Candies.

I like the position. Obviously by buying all four it means it’s very hard to distinguish who will do the best ... There will be low-cost people who come in, the Spirits of the world and JetBlues, whatever it may be, but my guess is that all four of the companies we have will have higher revenues. The question is what their operating ratio is—they will have fewer shares outstanding by a significant margin. So even if they're worth what they're worth today, we could make a fair amount of money. But it is no cinch, by a long shot."

On the Future of Berkshire Hathaway

"If I died tonight, I think the stock would go up tomorrow."

On Layoffs and Partnering with 3G on Kraft Heinz

"We don’t enjoy the process at all of getting more productive. Because it’s unpleasant ... It's just not as much fun to be in a business that cuts job as one that adds jobs. So Charlie and I would avoid personally having Berkshire buy businesses where the main benefits are actually having fewer workers.

"But I think it’s pro-social to think in terms of improving productivity, and I think the people at 3G do a very good job of that ... When Kraft Heinz(khc, -0.17%) finds whatever amount of business they can do, and they can do it with fewer people, they’re doing what American businesses have done for a couple hundred years and why we live so well. But they do it very fast. They don’t want to have two people doing the job that one could do. I frankly don’t like going through that ... But change is painful. I think it's absolutely essential to America that we become more productive because that is the only way you have more consumption per capita, more productivity per capita."

Charlie Munger: "I don’t see anything wrong with increasing productivity. On the other hand, there’s a lot of counterproductive publicity to doing it. Just because you’re right doesn’t mean you should always do it ... It’s terribly unpleasant for the people that have to go through it. And why would we want to get into the business of doing that over and over ourselves? We did it in the past where we had to. I don't see any moral fault in 3G at all, but I do see there is some political reaction that doesn’t do anybody any good."