Subject: Re: Value growth of Berkshire's parts
Thank you, Jim. That's extremely helpful. It pretty much fills in the values and value growth rates of all of Berkshire's parts, except for cash and fixed income, which are easily calculated. Adding in 2.5% inflation, over the last 13 years we have equities returning 12.4%/year (nominal, pre-tax) and operating companies, ex-insurance, growing 9.8%/year (weighted average of rail, utilities and manuf/service/retail in your post). I'm sure that there's some spread of growth rates within manufacturing, service and retail group, just as there's some spread of returns within the equity portfolio. Within the equity portfolio the companies with the highest growth rate are Apple, at 19.8%/yr (Morningstar's fair value estimates over 10 years), and Moody's, at 17.6%/yr (price over 10 years).

Since the original purchases of many of these parts have been funded by insurance float (which now stands at $164 billion), I would have to say that insurance is Berkshire's most valuable part, even if not currently the fastest growing part.

Thank you for your help. It gives me a better understanding of Berkshire's value and value growth.

Sincerely,
rrr12345