Berkshire Hathaway in Gold

Another great email this week:

I often hear that Warren Buffet thinks gold is a lousy "investment" when compared to stocks. What I've never seen is a long-term comparison of gold versus BRK-A or other well-known "successful" funds.
Any chance of seeing a chart of BRK-A in gold?

I've been keeping that chart for years, but haven't updated it lately. You can check it anytime at stockcharts.com with the symbol "BRK/A:$GOLD". Basically, Berkshire did great until 1999, and has been lousy from then until about a year ago, falling 85% and giving up all of it's gains back to 1995. The last 12 months have been pretty good, but if you bought BRK-A anytime between 1996 and 2011, you are still underwater.

Here is a chart of BRK-A in ounces of gold:

Cheers,

Sir Charles