Deloitte & Touche

WARREN BUFFETT: Also with us today are partners in the firm of Deloitte & Touche, our auditors. They are available to respond to appropriate questions you might have concerning their firm’s audit of the accounts of Berkshire. In that regard, I wish to report that at Berkshire’s audit committee meeting held on March 2nd, 2004, Deloitte & Touche responded to the four questions I suggested be asked to the independent accountants by all audit committees. And we’re going to put these up in just a second. With respect to Berkshire, the questions and the auditors’ responses will be shown on the following slides. And I might mention that I really do think these questions should be asked of all auditors, at least annually, perhaps even quarterly. And I really think that, if such a procedure had been followed over the years — don’t eat them all Charlie. (Laughter) If such procedures had been followed over the years, there would have been a lot less trouble in corporate America. I mean, for many years, particularly in the ’90s, I think there was a weakening, frankly, in auditor vigilance.