People have debated whether what seemed brilliant at the time (1998) actually worked out all that well as Gen Re later on had many issues with its insurance book and became a very messy turnaround.

But I thought I would add this historical point to the conversation.

Maybe the second worst mistake in Buffett's investment history. It looked brilliant at the time, but exchanged 22% of BRK for a commodity, poorly run, company.

His worst mistake was was incorporating National Indemnity Insurance as part of Berkshire Hathaway rather than keeping it separate as part of his private holdings. That resulted in sharing the ability to reinvest its float privately rather than sharing it with all the other BRK share holders. He could have retained all that leverage for himself. Gave away half of it to shareholders of BRK. We benefited, he didn't.

The next worst mistake was exchanging 22% of BRK for GRN, a troubled commodity insurance, company for BRK stock. GRN has essentially gone nowhere since since. And BRK shareholders have suffered from more than 200k shares of excess BRK stock for an average, or below, company. When BRK quit reporting on GRN, it still had a net negative cost of float, even though it has become mildly profitable. Buffett finally admitted in 2017 that it was a terrible mistake.

Those excess shares of BRK have weighted on BRK shares every since 1998. even what has been bought back has been at a much higher price since then.

Had Buffett bought back in the cheap 2000 period when he toyed with doing so, it might have worked out OK. But he didn't. He insisted on retaining capital.

We've all done fine. But don't think there weren't mistakes along the way.