INTC and WB

Intel (INTC)

Did you know that Intel has a $3.5 billion chip-making facility in the desert in Chandler, Ariz.? And did you know that Intel is building another facility nearby at a cost of $5 billion? Intel has committed to spending over $10 billion in chip-fabrication facilities during the next few years. These manufacturing facilities are in the United States, and did you note the word manufacturing? Did you note the words in the United States?

WB (BRK.A and BRK.B)

WB stands for Warren Buffett, who is practically interchangeable with his company, Berkshire Hathaway. The ticker symbols for Berkshire are BRK.A and BRK.B.

Berkshire’s annual report arrived in my mailbox a couple of weeks ago, and in the annual shareholder letter, WB writes:

“Throughout my lifetime, politicians and pundits have constantly moaned about terrifying problems facing America. Yet our citizens now live an astonishing six times better than when I was born. The prophets of doom have overlooked the one factor that is certain: Human potential is far from exhausted, and the American system for unleashing that potential — a system that has worked wonders for over two centuries despite frequent interruptions for recessions and even a civil war — remains alive and effective. [...] America’s best days lie ahead.”

Berkshire, by the way, had an earnings gain of 40%, pre-tax, and 30%, after tax, for 2010, mostly due the purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe. The stock has had only two negative years since 1965.