巴菲特致股东的信（1980年）②企业长期绩效③股东权益报告

Long-Term Corporate Results

As we have noted, we evaluate single-year corporate performance by comparing operating earnings to shareholders’ equity with securities valued at cost. Our long-term yardstick of performance, however, includes all capital gains or losses, realized or unrealized. We continue to achieve a long-term return on equity that considerably exceeds the average of our yearly returns. The major factor causing this pleasant result is a simple one: the retained earnings of those non-controlled holdings we discussed earlier have been translated into gains in market value.

企业长期绩效

如先前所提的，我们以营业利益除以股东权益(股权投资以原史成本计)来评估企业单一年度的绩效，至于长期评量的标准，则须加计所有已实现或未实现的资本利得或损失，而一直以来，后者历年来的平均数都比前者还要好，最主要的原因是前段所提那些无控制权的公司盈余持续累积，反映在其市值增加之上。

Of course, this translation of retained earnings into market price appreciation is highly uneven (it goes in reverse some years), unpredictable as to timing, and unlikely to materialize on a precise dollar-for-dollar basis. And a silly purchase price for a block of stock in a corporation can negate the effects of a decade of earnings retention by that corporation. But when purchase prices are sensible, some long-term market recognition of the accumulation of retained earnings almost certainly will occur. Periodically you even will receive some frosting on the cake, with market appreciation far exceeding post-purchase retained earnings.

当然市值的变化起起伏伏且无法预测，更无法真正量化到底数字是多少，有时一个高价买进的错误，甚至可能把公司往后十几年盈余累积的效果都给抵销掉，但是只要市场回复理性，市价终究会反映公司累积盈余的能力，甚至超过买进后累积的盈余，这等于是在蛋糕上多得到一点糖霜呢。

In the sixteen years since present management assumed responsibility for Berkshire, book value per share with insurance-held equities valued at market has increased from $19.46 to $400.80, or 20.5% compounded annually. (You’ve done better: the value of the mineral content in the human body compounded at 22% annually during the past decade.) It is encouraging, moreover, to realize that our record was achieved despite many mistakes. The list is too painful and lengthy to detail here. But it clearly shows that a reasonably competitive corporate batting average can be achieved in spite of a lot of managerial strikeouts.

在现有经营阶层接掌伯克希尔的十六年来，公司每股的帐面净值(其中保险事业的股权投资以市价计)已由原先的19.46美元成长至400.8美元，相当于年复合成长率20.5%(事实上你“本身”作得也不错，过去十年来人体内所含矿物质成份的价值以年复合成长率22%增加)，值得庆幸的是，虽然我们也犯了不少错，但还是能达到这样的记录，尽管管理上时常糟到三振，但优异的企业体质仍然可以维持相当不错的平均打击率。

Our insurance companies will continue to make large investments in well-run, favorably-situated, non-controlled companies that very often will pay out in dividends only small proportions of their earnings. Following this policy, we would expect our long-term returns to continue to exceed the returns derived annually from reported operating earnings. Our confidence in this belief can easily be quantified: if we were to sell the equities that we hold and replace them with long-term tax-free bonds, our reported operating earnings would rise immediately by over $30 million annually. Such a shift tempts us not at all.

So much for the good news.

我们旗下的保险事业将会持续地把资金投资在一些虽不具控制权但经营良好且保留大部份盈余的公司之上，按照这个策略，可预期的长期的投资报酬率将持续大于每年帐面盈余的报酬率，而我们对此理念的坚信不移是很容易用数字来说明的，虽然只要我们愿意，把手上的股权投资出清，然后转进免税的长期债券，公司每年帐面盈余马上就能净增加3,000万美金，但我们从来就没想过要那么去作。

好消息到此为止。

Results for Owners

Unfortunately, earnings reported in corporate financial statements are no longer the dominant variable that determines whether there are any real earnings for you, the owner. For only gains in purchasing power represent real earnings on investment. If you (a) forego ten hamburgers to purchase an investment; (b) receive dividends which, after tax, buy two hamburgers; and (c) receive, upon sale of your holdings, after-tax proceeds that will buy eight hamburgers, then (d) you have had no real income from your investment, no matter how much it appreciated in dollars. You may feel richer, but you won’t eat richer.

股东权益报告

很不幸的，公司财务报表所记载的盈余已不再表示就是股东们实际上所赚的，只有当购买力增加时，才表示投资获得真正的盈余。假设当初你放弃享受十个汉堡以进行投资，期间公司分配的股利足够让你买两个汉堡，而最后你处分投资后可换八个汉堡，那么你会发现事实上不管你拿到是多少钱，你的这项投资实际上并无所得，你可能觉得更有钱，但不表示你可以吃的更饱。

High rates of inflation create a tax on capital that makes much corporate investment unwise - at least if measured by the criterion of a positive real investment return to owners. This “hurdle rate” the return on equity that must be achieved by a corporation in order to produce any real return for its individual owners - has increased dramatically in recent years. The average tax-paying investor is now running up a down escalator whose pace has accelerated to the point where his upward progress is nil.

高通货膨涨率等于是对投入的资本额外课了一次税，如此一来可能使得大部份的投资变得有点愚蠢，而近几年来这个基本门槛，即企业投资所须最基本的报酬率以使得整件投资报酬为正的底限可说是日益提高，每个纳”税”人就好象是在一个向下滑的电扶梯上拼命往上跑一样，最后的结果却是愈跑愈往后退。

For example, in a world of 12% inflation a business earning 20% on equity (which very few manage consistently to do) and distributing it all to individuals in the 50% bracket is chewing up their real capital, not enhancing it. (Half of the 20% will go for income tax; the remaining 10% leaves the owners of the business with only 98% of the purchasing power they possessed at the start of the year - even though they have not spent a penny of their “earnings”). The investors in this bracket would actually be better off with a combination of stable prices and corporate earnings on equity capital of only a few per cent.

举例来说，假设一位投资人的年报酬率为20%(这已是一般人很难达到的成绩了)而当年度的通膨为12%，又若其不幸适用50%高所得税级距，则我们会发现该位投资人在盈余全数发放的情形下，其实质报酬率可能是负的，因为这20%的股利收入有一半要归公库，剩下的10%全部被通货膨涨吃光，不够还要倒贴，这结局可能比在通膨温和时投资一家获利平庸的公司还不如。

Explicit income taxes alone, unaccompanied by any implicit inflation tax, never can turn a positive corporate return into a negative owner return. (Even if there were 90% personal income tax rates on both dividends and capital gains, some real income would be left for the owner at a zero inflation rate.) But the inflation tax is not limited by reported income. Inflation rates not far from those recently experienced can turn the level of positive returns achieved by a majority of corporations into negative returns for all owners, including those not required to pay explicit taxes. (For example, if inflation reached 16%, owners of the 60% plus of corporate America earning less than this rate of return would be realizing a negative real return - even if income taxes on dividends and capital gains were eliminated.)

假设若只有外在的所得税负而无隐性的通货膨涨税负，则不论如何，正的投资报酬永远不会变成负的(即使所得税率高达90%也一样)，但通货膨涨却不管公司帐面到底赚不赚钱，只要像是最近这几年的通膨，就会使得大部份公司的实质投资报酬由正转为负，即使有些公司不必缴所得税也是一样，举例来说，如果通货膨涨率达到16%，约有六成的美国企业股东其投资报酬率变为负值，即使大家都不必缴资本利得与股利所得税也一样。

Of course, the two forms of taxation co-exist and interact since explicit taxes are levied on nominal, not real, income. Thus you pay income taxes on what would be deficits if returns to stockholders were measured in constant dollars.

当然这两者租税是交相存于在现实社会中的，因为外在的课税系按照名目所得而非实质所得，所以在支付所得税后，股东的实质币质将不增反减。

At present inflation rates, we believe individual owners in medium or high tax brackets (as distinguished from tax-free entities such as pension funds, eleemosynary institutions, etc.) should expect no real long-term return from the average American corporation, even though these individuals reinvest the entire after-tax proceeds from all dividends they receive. The average return on equity of corporations is fully offset by the combination of the implicit tax on capital levied by inflation and the explicit taxes levied both on dividends and gains in value produced by retained earnings.

而以目前的通货膨涨率来看，我们相信对适用中高级距所得税率的投资人而言(除非你是透过退休基金、慈善团体等免税机构来投资)，将无法从投资一般美国企业获得任何实质的资本利得，即使他们把分配到的股利一再重复地投资下去也一样，因为其获利早已被隐藏的通货膨涨与台面上的所得税给吸收殆尽。

As we said last year, Berkshire has no corporate solution to the problem. (We’ll say it again next year, too.) Inflation does not improve our return on equity.

而如同去年我们所说的一样，对于这个问题我们目前无解(明年我们的回答很可能也是如此)，通货膨涨对我们股权投资的报酬没有任何一点帮助。

Indexing is the insulation that all seek against inflation. But the great bulk (although there are important exceptions) of corporate capital is not even partially indexed. Of course, earnings and dividends per share usually will rise if significant earnings are “saved” by a corporation; i.e., reinvested instead of paid as dividends. But that would be true without inflation. A thrifty wage earner, likewise, could achieve regular annual increases in his total income without ever getting a pay increase - if he were willing to take only half of his paycheck in cash (his wage “dividend”) and consistently add the other half (his “retained earnings”) to a savings account. Neither this high- saving wage earner nor the stockholder in a high-saving corporation whose annual dividend rate increases while its rate of return on equity remains flat is truly indexed.

编制指数(Indexing)是一般认为对抗通膨的一种有效方法，但大部份的企业资本却从未这样做，当然帐面每股盈余与股利通常会渐渐增加，若公司把所赚的钱再投资下去，即使是无通膨也是一样，就像是一个勤俭的薪水阶级，只要固定把他所赚薪水中的一半存入银行，就算是从来没有获得加薪，他每年的收入还是会慢慢的增加。

For capital to be truly indexed, return on equity must rise, i.e., business earnings consistently must increase in proportion to the increase in the price level without any need for the business to add to capital - including working capital - employed. (Increased earnings produced by increased investment don’t count.) Only a few businesses come close to exhibiting this ability. And Berkshire Hathaway isn’t one of them.

理论上，企业盈余(当然不包括由额外投入的资本所产生的盈余)不必增加任何资金，也能够稳定地随着物价指数持续增加，包含营运资金在内，但只有极少数的公司具有此种能力，而伯克希尔并不在其中。

We, of course, have a corporate policy of reinvesting earnings for growth, diversity and strength, which has the incidental effect of minimizing the current imposition of explicit taxes on our owners. However, on a day-by-day basis, you will be subjected to the implicit inflation tax, and when you wish to transfer your investment in Berkshire into another form of investment, or into consumption, you also will face explicit taxes.

当然本公司在盈余再投资以求成长、多角化、茁壮的企业政策下，碰巧也有为股东减轻外在所得税负的效果，那就是只要你不将目前所持有的伯克希尔股份转做其它投资，就不会被课征所得税，但是隐藏的通货膨涨税，却是每天你醒来就必须面对的问题。