The so-called Woodstock of Capitalism has begun.
Tens of thousands of people gathered to hear Warren Buffett impart wisdom and answer questions at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting, which kicked off Saturday morning.
Thousands more are likely to tune in via Yahoo Finance, which is livestreaming the festivities.
There’s plenty for Buffett, 86, and right-hand man Charlie Munger, 93, to talk about.
Buffett, sitting next to Munger onstage with a box of peanut brittle in between them, led with a characteristic quip.
“You can tell us apart because he can hear and I can see … That’s why we work together so well,” Buffett said to audience laughter.
Other business luminaries are also in attendance. Buffett had Jack Bogle, founder of investment company The Vanguard Group, stand up and wave to the crowd. Bill Gates is there too.
Before the meeting, Buffett cracked open his first cherry coke at the Coca-Cola booth at 7:38 am CT here in Omaha and said: “Ah, it’s better than the ads!”
Buffett, who is also a huge shareholder of Coke, remarked it was later than when he usually gets his first coke, which is usually the first thing he has in the morning when he wakes up.
Buffett told CNN that he is currently reading three books and is looking forward to reading “Shattered” about the Clinton campaign.
Buffett’s first question was about Wells Fargo, which remains under scrutiny for its fake accounts scandal.
Berkshire owns about 473 million shares of Wells Fargo. It’s the company’s largest holding.
“The main problem was that they didn’t act when they learned about it. It’s bad enough having a bad system, but they didn’t act,” Buffett said. He criticized the company’s incentive system which led to the creation of fake accounts, which he said encouraged “bad behavior.”
Buffett is likely to face other questions about business decisions.
The billionaire announced earlier this week that Berkshire Hathaway dumped about a third of his IBM stock. He’s the company’s largest shareholder.
His other major holdings have also attracted a lot of attention recently. The airline industry has come under fire for its treatment of customers. Berkshire has a sizable stake in United, Delta, American and Southwest. And Kraft Heinz put in a failed bid for European consumer products giant Unilever.
