当股市下跌时——这时不时就会发生——不要恐慌也不要哀痛。

　　On Nailing It

　　谈搞定交易

　　“近似的正确好过精确的错误。 ”

　　“It is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong”

　　On Chasing

　　谈投资跟风

　　“What the wise do in the beginning， fools do in the end”

　　“聪明人起头，傻瓜结尾。”

　　On Accounting Shenanigans (1/10,000)

　　谈财会把戏

　　“如果期权不是一种报酬，那是什么？如果报酬不是一种费用，那是什么？如果费用不计入财报，那到底该怎样对待？”

　　“If options aren‘t a form of compensation， what are they？ If compensation isn’t an expense， what is it？ And， if expenses shouldnt go into the calculation of earnings， where in the world should they go？”

　　On Declining Share Prices

　　谈股价下跌

　　“总体看，伯克希尔及其长期股东受益于股市下跌，就像购买食品的普通人受益于价格下跌。因此，当股市下跌时——这时不时就会发生——不要恐慌也不要哀痛，这对伯克希尔是好消息。”

　　“Overall， Berkshire and its long-term shareholders benefit from a sinking stock market as much as a regular purchaser of food benefits from declining food prices. So when the market plummets- as it will from time to time- neither panic nor mourn. Its good news for Berkshire。”

　　On Management

　　谈管理

　　“对于管理层在首次公开募股时表示或暗示公司股价被低估，这通常意味着他们要么没有公开全部事实，要么就是在浪费现有股东的钱。”

　　“Managements that say or imply during a public offering that their stock is undervalued are usually being economical with the truth or uneconomical with their existing shareholders money”

　　“我们希望我们的管理人员思考有用的事情，而不是思考如何修饰财务报告。”

　　“We want our managers to think about what counts， not how it will be counted”

　　On Executive Compensation

　　谈高管薪酬

　　Getting fired can produce a particularly bountiful payday for a CEO. Indeed he can “earn” more in that single day， while cleaning out his desk， than an American worker earns in a lifetime of cleaning toilets. Forget the old maxim about nothing succeeding like success: Today， in the executive suite， the all-too prevalent rule is that nothing succeeds like failure.

　　CEO被裁掉还能获得大笔收入，实际上他被裁那天清理办公桌‘赚的钱’超过美国劳动者清理卫生间一辈子赚的钱。忘掉那句古老的格言：“一事成功事事成功”吧。如今，在公司管理层中，风靡一时的定律是：“一事失败事事成功”。

　　On Efficient Markets

　　谈有效市场

　　“1970年代初，大多数机构投资者在决定股票买卖价格时，认为公司价值无关紧要。这在现在很难想象。然而这些机构受到当时知名商学院教授的影响，他们有一种很时髦的理论：股市有效说，因此估算公司价值——甚至考虑这个问题本身——在投资中不再重要。(我们非常感谢这些学术精英：在智力竞赛中，不管是桥牌、象棋还是选股，对手被教导思考是浪费精力，没有什么比这更能让你占便宜了。)”

　　Most institutional investors in the early 1970s， on the other hand， regarded business value as of only minor relevance when they were deciding prices at which they would buy or sell. This now seems hard to believe. However， these institutions were then under the spell of academics at prestigious business schools who were preaching a newly-fashioned theory: the stock market was totally efficient， and therefore calculations of business value- and even thought， itself- were of no more importance in investment activities. (We are enormously indebted to those academics: what could be more advantageous in an intellectual contest- whether it be bridge， chess， or stock selection- then to have opponents who have been taught that thinking is a waste of energy？)

　　On EBITDA

　　谈息税折旧摊销前利润

　　“大肆宣扬EBITDA极其有害。使用EBITDA意味着仅仅因为折旧费用是一种”非现金“减计，就可以把折旧不作为一种真实的费用。这完全是胡扯。实际上，折旧是一项特别不引人注目的费用， 因为和折旧相关的现金支出早在取得的固定资产还未为企业获利之前就已经预先支付。想像一下，如果你愿意，今年年初就预先支付公司所有员工未来十年工作的所有薪酬，那么，在接下来的9年，薪酬将变成非现金支出，作为今年已经预先支付现金买入的资产的折旧。在这种状况下有谁会争论说从第2年到第10年这9年账上所记录的折旧费用只不过是记账形式而已？”

　　“Trumpeting EBITDA is a particularly pernicious practice. Doing so implies that depreciation is not truly an expense， given that it is a ”non-cash“ charge. Thats nonsense. In truth， depreciation is a particularly unattractive expense because the cash outlay it represents is paid upfront， before the asset acquired has delivered any benefits to the business. Imagine， if you will， that at the beginning of this year a company paid all of its employees for the next ten years of their service. In the following nine years， compensation would be a ”non-cash“ expense- a reduction of a pre paid compensation asset established this year. Would anyone care to argue that the recording of the expense in years two through ten would be simply a bookkeeping formality？”

　　On Reading

　　谈阅读

　　“芒格和我喜爱报纸，我们每天阅读五份。”

　　Charlie and I love newspapers- we each read five a day.