Does every business need a cash pile like Warren Buffett’s?

WARREN BUFFETT must be feeling smug right now. Months before American stockmarkets started sliding from record levels in late February, as investors began to question President Donald Trump’s stewardship of the world’s largest economy, the nonagenarian billionaire was cashing out of equities. In 2024 his industrial conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, sold a net $134bn of stocks, including two-thirds of its $174bn stake in Apple. By the end of March the S&P 500 index of America’s biggest companies was 9% down from its peak. So was the iPhone-maker. Berkshire, meanwhile, was sitting pretty on a 10% gain—and a pile of cash to make Scrooge McDuck blanch. Converted into $100 bills, its $334bn in liquid assets would fill 1,900 king-size mattresses. The internet buzzed with memes about preternatural market timing.