Picture it: You're in Omaha, Nebraska. On Sunday, May 1. Surrounded by a hotel conference room full of reporters. All desperate to ask Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B), and Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire and chairman of soon-to-be 100%-Berkshire-owned Wesco Financial (AMEX: WSC), the perfect question.
Your turn finally comes. You stand, and suddenly all eyes in the room are on you -- none more intimidating than Buffett and Munger's. Gathering up your nerve, you open your mouth and…
Hopefully, you've come up with something thoughtful, distinctive, and interesting. Something they haven't already answered 100 times. Something bold, something memorable.
Fools, this is the very situation I'm faced with this coming Sunday in Omaha at the Berkshire Hathaway press conference. I only get one shot, so I'd better make it good. To that end, I'm asking for your help. What should I ask? What would you ask?
Sure, I could broach the topic of Sokol-gate. In fact, that's what I told Fox Business would be the big issue for this year's annual meeting, and I still think it will dominate. Or, given that I just wrote a book on the subject, I could ask Buffett how he feels about the fact that he invests like a girl.
There are other possibilities, naturally. For instance, I'd like to know what he thinks the future holds for printed news. After all, Berkshire is the biggest shareholder of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), yet Buffett has said he wouldn't invest in another newspaper company.
We also know that Berkshire has stakes in several international companies, including the Chinese company BYD, the South Korean steel company Posco (NYSE: PKX), and the French pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis (NYSE: SNY), and that Buffett recently returned from a trip to India. Given his notoriously dour outlook on the dollar, I think it's certainly worth asking if he'll be looking to add to that international roster. And what, if anything, did he discover in India that excited him?
Those are just a few of my thoughts on what to potentially ask Buffett, but I want to hear yours. So, please help me out by leaving a suggested question in the comments section below between now and Sunday morning, but whatever you do, make it good! I leave for Omaha tomorrow morning, but I'll be monitoring the comments here all weekend. So start sending 'em.
You can follow me on Twitter (@LouAnnLofton) or check out our Facebook page to see which question I end up asking. Will it be yours? If it's good enough, it just might be.
(If you're going out to the annual meeting, stop by Robert Miles' author reception Friday night at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (Mammel Hall) from 6-8 p.m. I'll be attending it alongside other authors like Roger Lowenstein, Andrew Kilpatrick, and Lauren Templeton. Come say hello and enjoy a free Dilly Bar with me!)
