Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, a legendary figure, has revealed his decision to retire from Berkshire Hathaway by the year’s end, earning a resounding ovation from attendees at the company’s yearly shareholder gathering.
Buffett, 94, recommended Berkshire Hathaway Chairperson Greg Abel as his replacement and said he had no plans to sell his stock in the company.
This announcement followed Buffett’s criticism of President Donald Trump’s extensive tariffs, cautioning against the U.S. using “trade as a weapon” and potentially alienating other countries.
Buffett addressed shareholders at the annual meeting, stating, “It’s a significant error, in my opinion, when 7.5 billion people are not particularly fond of you, and your 300 million are boasting about their achievements.”
While it’s best for trade to be balanced between countries, Buffett added he does not believe tariffs are the right way to go about it. He also said the world will be safer if more countries are prosperous.
“We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world,” he said. “We should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best.”
Buffett, however, insisted the stock market’s recent turmoil that generated headlines after Trump’s tariff announcement last month “is really nothing.”
He dismissed the recent drop in the market because he’s seen three periods in the last 60 years of managing Berkshire when his company’s stock was halved.
He cited when the Dow Jones industrial average went from 240 on the day he was born in 1930 down to 41 during the Great Depression as a truly significant drop in the markets. Currently the Dow Jones Industrial Average sits at $41,317.43.
With Post wires.
