One of my favorite research pieces to read every year is Warren Buffett’s annual letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A),his gigantic holding company.

Not only does it paint an excellent broad-brush picture of the US economy, it is also witty, funny, and downright educational, even for old farts such as myself.

Warren and his long time partner Charlie Munger own such a big chunk of the US economy, about 3%, employing a staggering 361,270 individuals world wide, that he has a truly unique 50,000-foot view of what is happening.

For example, his BNSF railroad took it on the nose with the collapse of the US coal industry, but made it back with the rise of rail oil shipments.

Driverless cars promise to have a huge and negative impact on the insurance industry and car dealerships. Traditional print publications continued to be devoured by the Internet. Warren sees it all before anyone else.

Warning: Buffett doesn’t do technology, a sector that he has never understood, and which largely doesn’t pay dividends. Warren is definitely an old economy guy.

He likes to tell his investors that he got the idea to take a 5% stake in Bank of America (BAC) while reading research in the  bathtub. What he DOESN’T tell them is that he was reading MY research in his bathtub.

My followers earned a 400% profit over a single weekend on (BAC) call options on that trade.

Berkshire Hathaway shares suffered an uncommonly difficult year in 2015, shedding some 1.2%, even though the book value per share rose by 6.4%. Over the past 51 years, the shares have rocketed from $19 to $155,501, a 19.2% return compounded annually.

It has been a performance for the ages.

Dad! Where were you?

Buffett starts out by listing his highlights for the year.

He invested $5.8 billion to improve the service of his BNSF railroad, which carries 17% of America’s rail cargo. It was one of the largest single capital investments in US history, and will bring substantially greater profits in years to come.