巴菲特致股东的信（2023年）①概述

To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:

致伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司所有股东：

Berkshire has more than three million shareholder accounts. I am charged with writing a letter every year that will be useful to this diverse and ever-changing group of owners, many of whom wish to learn more about their investment.

伯克希尔目前股东账户数量超过 300 万个。我每年执笔撰写股东信，初衷便是为结构多元、不断更迭的全体股东提供实用信息，其中不少人希望深入了解自己所持有的这笔投资。

Charlie Munger, for decades my partner in managing Berkshire, viewed this obligation identically and would expect me to communicate with you this year in the regular manner. He and I were of one mind regarding our responsibilities to Berkshire shareholders.

数十年来，查理・芒格始终与我一同运营伯克希尔，他同样看重这份责任，想必也会支持我今年依旧按照惯例和大家交流。如何对待全体伯克希尔股东、履行自身受托义务，我和他始终想法一致。

Writers find it useful to picture the reader they seek, and often they are hoping to attract a mass audience. At Berkshire, we have a more limited target: investors who trust Berkshire with their savings without any expectation of resale (resembling in attitude people who save in order to buy a farm or rental property rather than people who prefer using their excess funds to purchase lottery tickets or “hot” stocks).

作家都觉得心里有个目标读者会有利于写作，而且通常都希望读者越多越好。在伯克希尔，我们的目标受众更窄一些：那些把积蓄托付给伯克希尔、并不指望转手卖掉的投资者（心态上更像是存钱买农场或出租房产的人，而不是拿闲钱去买彩票或"热门"股票的人）。

Over the years, Berkshire has attracted an unusual number of such “lifetime” shareholders and their heirs. We cherish their presence and believe they are entitled to hear every year both the good and bad news, delivered directly from their CEO and not from an investor-relations officer or communications consultant forever serving up optimism and syrupy mush.

多年来，伯克希尔吸引了异常多的这种"终身"股东，以及他们的后代。我们珍惜他们的存在，也认为他们有权每年直接从公司 CEO 这里听到好消息和坏消息，而不是从投资者关系部门或公关顾问那里听那些永远乐观的甜言蜜语。

In visualizing the owners that Berkshire seeks, I am lucky to have the perfect mental model, my sister, Bertie. Let me introduce her.

在描绘伯克希尔理想中的股东形象时，我很幸运有一个完美的参照——我的妹妹伯蒂（Bertie）。让我介绍一下她。

For openers, Bertie is smart, wise and likes to challenge my thinking. We have never, however, had a shouting match or anything close to a ruptured relationship. We never will.

首先，伯蒂聪明、睿智，喜欢挑战我的想法。不过，我们从未有过激烈争吵，也从未有过接近破裂的关系。以后也不会有。

Furthermore, Bertie, and her three daughters as well, have a large portion of their savings in Berkshire shares. Their ownership spans decades, and every year Bertie will read what I have to say. My job is to anticipate her questions and give her honest answers.

此外，伯蒂和她三个女儿的大部分积蓄都是伯克希尔的股票。她们持有了几十年，每年伯蒂都会读我写的东西。我的任务就是预判她会有什么问题，然后给她诚实的回答。

Bertie, like most of you, understands many accounting terms, but she is not ready for a CPA exam. She follows business news – reading four newspapers daily – but doesn’t consider herself an economic expert. She is sensible – very sensible – instinctively knowing that pundits should always be ignored. After all, if she could reliably predict tomorrow’s winners, would she freely share her valuable insights and thereby increase competitive buying? That would be like finding gold and then handing a map to the neighbors showing its location.

伯蒂跟你们大多数人一样，看得懂很多会计术语，但还没到能考注册会计师的程度。她关注商业新闻——每天读四份报纸——但不觉得自己是经济学专家。她很明智——非常明智——凭直觉就知道永远不要听信那些专家。道理很简单：如果她真能可靠地预测明天的赢家，她会免费分享自己的宝贵洞见、给自己招来更多竞争者吗？那就好比发现了金矿，然后把地图发给邻居。

Bertie understands the power – for good or bad – of incentives, the weaknesses of humans, the “tells” that can be recognized when observing human behavior. She knows who is “selling” and who can be trusted. In short, she is nobody’s fool.

伯蒂深谙激励机制的力量（不管是好的还是坏的）、人性的弱点，以及观察人们行为时能识破的"底牌"。她知道谁在"推销"，谁值得信赖。总之，谁也别想蒙她。

So, what would interest Bertie this year?

那么，伯蒂今年对什么感兴趣呢？