Monday, January 19, 2009

Berkshire's Investments 1981


No. of Shares                                            Cost       Market
-------------                                         ----------  ----------
                                                          (000s omitted)
  451,650 (a)  Affiliated Publications, Inc. ........  $  3,297    $ 14,114
  703,634 (a)  Aluminum Company of America ..........    19,359      18,031
  420,441 (a)  Arcata Corporation 
                 (including common equivalents) .....    14,076      15,136
  475,217 (b)  Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company ........    12,942      14,362 
  441,522 (a)  GATX Corporation .....................    17,147      13,466
2,101,244 (b)  General Foods, Inc. ..................    66,277      66,714
7,200,000 (a)  GEICO Corporation ....................    47,138     199,800
2,015,000 (a)  Handy & Harman .......................    21,825      36,270
  711,180 (a)  Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc.       4,531      23,202
  282,500 (a)  Media General ........................     4,545      11,088
  391,400 (a)  Ogilvy & Mather International Inc. ...     3,709      12,329
  370,088 (b)  Pinkerton’s, Inc. ....................    12,144      19,675
1,764,824 (b)  R. J. Reynolds Industries, Inc. ......    76,668      83,127
  785,225 (b)  SAFECO Corporation ...................    21,329      31,016
1,868,600 (a)  The Washington Post Company ..........    10,628      58,160
                                                      ----------  ----------
                                                       $335,615    $616,490
All Other Common Stockholdings ......................    16,131      22,739
                                                      ----------  ----------
Total Common Stocks .................................  $351,746    $639,229
                                                      ==========  ==========

(a) All owned by Berkshire or its insurance subsidiaries.
(b) Blue Chip and/or Wesco own shares of these companies.  All 
    numbers represent Berkshire’s net interest in the larger 
    gross holdings of the group.