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12 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2025 the atomic bomb that we never dreamt of when I was born. So, I would not get discouraged that we haven't solved every prob- lem that's come along. If I were born today, I would just keep negotiating in the womb until they said I could be in the United States. We're all pretty lucky." He continued, "We didn't have to have perfection. We just had to be better than the other guy for quite a while. We started out with nothing and ended up with close to 25% of the world's GDP, faster growth rates, generally sounder currencies, and all kinds of things." This is the depth and strength of Buffett's belief in the United States. Never bet against the United States. Japan's Economy Berkshire historically has focused on U.S. investment, but in the past five years, the com- pany began purchasing shares in five Japanese companies. With Berkshire's increased invest- ment in Japanese companies, a foreign attendee asked Buf- fett about the economy in Japan. Buffett "confidently" replied, "The people of Japan determine their best course of action in terms of economics." He rightfully deflected the question with proper prudence as well as confidence. Apple, Inc. As of May 2025, Berkshire's larg- est equity holding was Apple, Inc., owning approximately 300 million shares, valued at around $66.6 billion, making up about 28% of Berkshire's total equity portfolio. Apple CEO Tim Cook attends Berkshire's annual meet- ing every year, and in his open- ing remarks, Buffett praised Tim Cook's leadership. "Nobody but Steve Jobs could have created Apple, but nobody but Tim Cook could have developed it like he has," Buffett said. U.S. Capitalism When asked about his views on capitalism, Buffett proudly stated that the one difference that he and Charlie had from others was that they put all their own money into it, and they did share the losses with their own capital, but they got an override on other people's capital. People have made advances where they get the override on other people's capital without putting up any of their own capital to speak of. That's a very good business, but it can lead to a lot of abuse. "Capitalism in the United States has succeeded like noth- ing you've ever seen," he told the audience. "But it's a combi- nation of this magnificent cathe- dral, which has produced an economy like nothing the world's ever seen, and then it's got this massive casino attached. In the casino, everybody's hav- ing a good time and there's lots of money changing hands, but the cathedral is what you've got to make sure gets fed too. The temptation is very high now to go over to the casino, where people say we've got magic S M T P E RS P ECT I V ES A N D P RO S P ECTS