【正文】 Of course, whether or not the undist。 GEICO Corp. GEICO 保險公司 Our largest noncontrolled holding is million shares of GEICO Corp., equal to about a 33% equity interest. Normally, an interest of this magnitude (over 20%) would qualify as an “investee” holding and would require us to reflect a proportionate share of GEICO’s earnings in our own. However, we purchased our GEICO stock pursuant to special orders of the District of Columbia and New York Insurance Departments, which required that the right to vote the stock be placed with an independent party. Absent the vote, our 33% interest does not qualify for investee treatment. (Pinkerton’s is a similar situation.) 目前我們不具控制權(quán)的股權(quán)投資最大的部位就是持有 33%股權(quán)，約 720萬股的 GEIGO，通常若持有一家公司股權(quán)達到這樣的比例 (超過 20%)，便必頇採用權(quán)益法每 年依比例認列其投資損益，但由於 Berkshire 當(dāng)初係依照政府部門一特別命令購買該 公司股份，其中規(guī)定頇將此投票權(quán)交由一公正第三人管理，所有失去投票權(quán)，意味 Berkshire 對 GEICO 不具實質(zhì)控制權(quán)。 perhaps 25% would be a fair assumption.) Thus, we have a much larger economic interest in the aluminum business than in practically any of the operating businesses we control and on which we report in more detail. If we maintain our holdings, our long term performance will be more affected by the future economics of the aluminum industry than it will by direct operating decisions we make concerning most panies over which we exercise managerial control. 從本表你會發(fā)現(xiàn)本公司背後所創(chuàng)造盈餘的動力係來自於各行各業(yè)，所以我們只能約略 地看個大概，譬如保險子公司約持有 Kaiser Alumnium 3%和 Aloca %的股份， 在 1980 年我們光是從這些公司依持股比例可得約 1,300 萬美金 (當(dāng)然若將這些盈餘 實際轉(zhuǎn)為資本利得或股利，則大約會被課以 25%的稅負 )，因此單單在製鋁這門行業(yè)， 我們的經(jīng)濟利益就大於其它那些我們可以直接控制且頇詳盡報告的公司。 Chemical Corp. ...... 20,629 27,569 282,500 (a) Media General ......................... 4,545 8,334 247,039 (b) National Detroit Corporation .......... 5,930 6,299 881,500 (a) National Student Marketing ............ 5,128 5,895 391,400 (a) Ogilvy amp。 No. of Shares Cost Market (000s omitted) 434,550 (a) Affiliated Publications, Inc. ......... $ 2,821 $ 12,222 464,317 (a) Aluminum Company of America ........... 25,577 27,685 475,217 (b) ClevelandCliffs Iron Company ......... 12,942 15,894 1,983,812 (b) General Foods, Inc. ................... 62,507 59,889 7,200,000 (a) GEICO Corporation ..................... 47,138 105,300 2,015,000 (a) Handy amp。 As indicated earlier, undistributed earnings in panies we do not control are now fully as important as the reported operating earnings detailed in the preceding table. The distributed portion, of course, finds its way into the table primarily through the investment ine section of Insurance Group earnings. 就像先前我們所提到的，那些不具控制權(quán)的股票投資其未分配的盈餘的的重要性已不 下於前面表列的帳面盈餘，至於那些已分配的部份則透過認列投資利列示在保險公司 投資收益項下。此外，本期的帳面盈餘並不包括聯(lián)合儲貸處份分公司辦公室的利得，也 因此使得表中「未包括已實現(xiàn)投資利得前盈餘」與經(jīng)會計師簽證的財務(wù)報表數(shù)字有所 不同。 We, of course, have a corporate policy of reinvesting earnings for growth, diversity and strength, which has the incidental effect of minimizing the current imposition of explicit taxes on our owners. However, on a day byday basis, you will be subjected to the implicit inflation tax, and when you wish to transfer your investment in Berkshire into another form of investment, or into consumption, you also will face explicit taxes. 當(dāng)然本公司在盈餘再投資以求成長、多角化、茁壯的企業(yè)政策下，碰巧也有為股東減 輕外在所得稅負的效果，那就是只要你不將目前所持有的 Berkshire 股份轉(zhuǎn)做其他投 資，就不會被課徵所得稅，但是隱藏的通貨膨漲稅，卻是每天你醒來就必頇面對的問 題。 ., reinvested instead of paid as dividends. But that would be true without inflation. A thrifty wage earner, likewise, could achieve regular annual increases in his total ine without ever getting a pay increase if he were willing to take only half of his paycheck in cash (his wage “dividend”) and consistently add the other half (his “retained earnings”) to a savings account. Neither this highsaving wage earner nor the stockholder in a highsaving corporation whose annual dividend rate increases while its rate of return on equity remains flat is truly indexed. 編製指數(shù) (Indexing)是一般認為對抗通膨的一種有效方法，但大部份的企業(yè)資本卻從 未這樣做，當(dāng)然帳面每股盈餘與股利通常會漸漸增加，若公司把所賺的錢再投資下去， 即使是無通膨也是一樣，就像是一個勤儉的薪水階級，只要固定把他所賺薪水中的一 半存入銀行，就算是從來沒有獲得加薪，他每年的收入還是會慢慢的增加。 As we said last year, Berkshire has no corporate solution to the problem. (We’ll say it again next year, too.) Inflation does not improve our return on equity. 而如同去年我們所說的一樣，對於這個問題我們目前無解 (明年我們的回答很可能也是 如此 )，通貨膨漲對我們股權(quán)投資的報酬沒有任何一點幫助。 Of course, the two forms of taxation coexist and interact since explicit taxes are levied on nominal, not real, ine. Thus you pay ine taxes on what would be deficits if returns to stockholders were measured in constant dollars. 當(dāng)然這兩者租稅是交相存於在現(xiàn)實社會中的，因為外在的課稅係按照名目所得而非實 質(zhì)所得，所以在支付所得稅後，股東的實質(zhì)幣質(zhì)將不增反減。 the remaining 10% leaves the owners of the business with only 98% of the purchasing power they possessed at the start of the year even though they have not spent a penny of their “earnings”). The investors in this bracket would actually be better off with a bination of stable prices and corporate earnings on equity capital of only a few per cent. 舉例來說，假設(shè)一位投資人的年報酬率為 20%(這已是一般人很難達到的成績了 )而當(dāng) 年度的通膨為 12%，又若其不幸適用 50% 高所得稅級距，則我們會發(fā)現(xiàn)該位投資人 在盈餘全數(shù)發(fā)放的情形下，其實質(zhì)報酬率可能是負的，因為這 20%的股利收入有一半 要歸公庫，剩下的 10%全部被通貨膨漲吃光，不夠還要倒貼，這結(jié)局可能比在通膨溫 和時投資一家獲利帄庸的公司還不如。 High rates of inflation create a tax on capital that makes much corporate investment unwise at least if measured by the criterion of a positive real investment return to owners. This “hurdle rate” the return on equity that must be achieved by a corporation in order to produce any real return for its individual owners has increased dramatically in recent years. The average taxpaying investor is now running up a down escalator whose pace has accelerated to the point where his upward progress is nil. 高通貨膨漲率等於是對投入的資本額外課了一次稅，如此一來可能使得大部份的