????我失去了什么？

????超額回報。你跑贏市場的能力。

????哦。但我想，有人就此寫了一篇文章作為回應。不是我寫的。我們會找出來是誰寫的。

????人們一直把伯克希爾股東大衛?威特描述為美國中部一位舉止溫和的會計師。他想收回一點兒投資，你為什么不遂他的愿呢？

????我在年報里用了很長的篇幅來探討分紅和回購。就在幾年前。我非常詳細地解釋了為什么他不拿（分紅）更好。我們現在正在投票，而且你會發現，股東們在這方面的感受很有意思。

????你愿意繳個稅，但討厭繳企業稅，為什么？

????我絕不會多繳一分錢的個稅，我們也絕不會多繳一分錢的企業稅。原因非常簡單。就我自己來說，我曾說過，只要有哪位參議員自愿多納稅，他繳多少我就繳多少；我還說過，要是參議員米奇?麥康諾自愿多繳稅，他繳多少，我就繳三倍，但他們一直沒給我機會來兌現承諾。

????實際上，看過之后你就會發現，（伯克希爾的）稅率挺高的。不過，如果能少繳，我就會少繳。我會在法律允許的范圍內盡可能地降低伯克希爾的稅率。比如說，如果修建了許多風力發電站，我們就可以在風能方面獲得退稅。這是我們建設風電站的唯一原因。不退稅，風電站就沒有意義。

????在今年的致股東信件中，你說公共養老金的問題正在變得越來越嚴重。你覺得應該怎么解決這個問題？

????解決方法是改變承諾，或者多收稅。但問題在于，所有政客在臺上的時間只有一、兩年。他們的最佳解決方案就是什么也不干，因為他們早晚會下臺。這不是一夜之間出現的問題，這不是說為什么沒電了，或者為什么街上的雪沒人鏟。這是世界上最容易被耽誤的問題。

????在奧馬哈，我不愿意更改已經向工薪階層做出的公開承諾。所以我想應該多收稅。但在許多市和州這樣做都不會見效。和稅收規模相比，這個問題過于嚴重。在底特律，不管收多少稅也不足以兌現他們在養老金方面的承諾。他們承諾的太多了。

????美國的工作機會向海外流失，美國公司制造的產品賣給美國人卻不繳稅，你覺得我們應該怎么辦？或者我們是否應該采取行動？

????局面已經非常難以控制，原因是有些國家和地區的稅率是這么的低。有些公司的借口是，他們的利潤來自愛爾蘭或者百慕大群島，而實際上他們的很大一部分產品都在美國國內制造，涉及知識產權的時候更是這樣。這些公司在海外積累了巨額現金，然后它們會說，給我們一個免稅期，我們就會把這些錢帶回來。但如果它們發現可以不把資金轉回國內，滿足它們的要求只會讓它們在海外變本加厲地賺錢。這是一個瘋狂的局面，而且已經存在了很多年。到了某個時候，（我們）的確需要認真研究一下涉及這方面的稅法。

????你在去年的股東大會上說自己擔心美聯儲（Federal Reserve）終止量化寬松政策和刺激性貨幣政策。你認為美聯儲現在已經退出這項政策了嗎？你仍然擔心今后可能出現的問題嗎？

????嗯，我曾說過，這不亞于一場有趣的電影，原因是風險很高，而且我們對結局一無所知?，F在我要說，情況依然如此。但到目前為止我們還沒有發現什么與此有關的重大問題。

????也就是說你已經不那么擔心量化寬松政策的終結了？

????沒錯。它仍然是一場有趣的電影。我還是不知道結局怎樣。正因為這樣，我才覺得它是這么的有意思。

????非常感謝。（財富中文網）

????譯者：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.