OMAHA, Neb. — A remake of “Empire State of Mind” with lyrics about Berkshire Hathaway, greeted shareholders this morning. (I’m not sure if it was actually sung by Jay Z and Alicia Keys, but it sure sounded like it. We’ll try to get the lyrics for you at some point.) The song is a throwback — fitting for a Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, which is the very definition of old-school.

Picking up from what I wrote in today's Morning Brief, the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) meeting was both riveting and, well, dare I say SOP. The distinction is a matter of form and content. The form of the meeting is largely the same, (i.e. SOP), as back in 2019, the last in-person event. But the content, what Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger talked about, was pretty interesting.

I’ll start with what’s the same, and that’s simple — the whole shebang. Walking into the convention center and the arena, the Berkshire gang is back. Many thousands of them, packing the hall and shopping (for Berkshire company merchandise) until they’re dropping. True, there were fewer Berkshire companies in the hall. Missing for instance was the usual big Coca-Cola display. (Wonder why that is?)

There are other effects of supply chain pressure, such as no special edition Brooks running shoe (dang!). But supply chain strains didn’t seem to impact See’s Candies; it looked like they had tons, in fact exactly 11 tons. Apparently shareholders had some serious cases of sweet tooth. Buffett told us that See’s had record sales on Friday.

“Anything not sold goes to Charlie and me,” Buffett jokes.

The (Jimmy) Buffett boat, (“when two titans of industry meet”) caught my eye. The boat, designed by chief parrot-head Jimmy Buffett and made by Berkshire’s subsidiary Forest River, goes for $200,000 with a 10% shareholder discount. Buffett said they sold 15 of them by late Saturday afternoon.

The requisite intro video came on with greatest hits clips with stars from "Breaking Bad," "The Office," and "Desperate Housewives." Also included was a classic clip of Buffett from 1991 in front of Congress during the Salomon Brothers scandal, where he uttered the now famous (on Wall Street at least) words: “Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.” I love Myles Udland’s headline on that: "This is the moment America met Warren Buffett."