Subject: Re: Brk annual meeting questions,
"And here I think is where Mungofitch and Buffett might rationally veer apart a little bit. If you find an investor in BRK, have you found an American? Well, not necessarily but that is the way to bet.

I think Mungofitch's divestiture from things American was well described, compellingly motivated, and certainly served to wake me up and make me think. But on reflection, one of my conclusions from thinking about it is that it makes much more sense for a non-American than for an American to get out of Dodge."

I think this is true (that it makes much more sense for a non-American than for an American to get out of Dodge) right now, but that does not mean that there are not warning signs even for Americans. Right now, it is easiest to disregard the rule of law and due process when targeting Non-American citizens, but that will change. To mangle a metaphor, the frog needs to be boiled slowly. If you heat the water too quickly it will just hop out. If rule of law and due process are disregarded against everyone right away then people would fight back, instead you go after the easiest first and gradually expand the targets as the populace gets used to rule of law not mattering.

Besides, there are already signs that American institutions are being targeted. Ask the Associated Press. Ask Harvard. Ask various law firms that represented clients Trump did not like. In fact, rule of law is already being disregarded against AP. Every court has ruled that AP should have the same access to the White House that other news services do. The administration is ignoring those ruling and just illegally continuing to bar them from the White House.

Now most people would say "Ohh big deal, the AP cannot have White House access. Who cares?". And to a certain degree it isn't a big deal, but that is how it starts.

There is the famous quote:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

Right now rule of law still generally matters when the government tries to use power against most Americans, but it matter less than it did 4 months ago and it is declining every day. Yes, there is still hope that things will change and there is still time for things to change, but the thing is that you cannot wait until the actual point of rule of law protections no longer protecting you because by then it is too late.

"To turn the a question a bit on its side, If Buffett were to ask you what a better investment environment than the US is, what would your answer be? Hard to claim Buffett is biased unless you can answer that question with somewhere better than the US, isn't it?"

For me, I am no longer in the accumulation phase of life. I have plenty, more than enough. What I am most worried about is unrecoverable loss. Unrecoverable loss is generally associated with investment risk (i.e. making a bad investment) or inflation. I think I can generally handle those ok (at least relative to the general population). The loss I am fearing is loss due to lack of rule of law.

So for me, rule of law is far more important than economic outlook or investment outlook. In that regard, there are plenty of places that are at least just as good to invest as the U.S.