Subject: Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?
BRK can do better. Stationary storage battery prices were down twenty five percent this year. Don't know what the number was for solar but prices will continue to drop. Car battery prices were down 50%. Looks to me like it's a declining business - at most stable - over the next ten or twenty years. I spend $10 to go 216 miles in my electric pickup. People are going to switch.


XOM is not the low cost producer in a commodity business. Not a position of strength. Sucks up capital. Can they raise prices without losing customers? Nope.


Defending a 3.43 percent dividend is not something that gets me excited. Share buybacks just means you have no better use for the capital. 13X earnings is not cheap unless you can grow the business over time.


Having management engage with analysts is fine but it doesn't affect the value of the company. Sounds like promotion rather than education. All I do is napkin math, but it looks like a cigar butt to me.