Buffett on Ehthanol
Someone asked what Buffett and Munger thought about investing in Ethanol. Buffett pointed out that "Ethanol is hot" and also admitted he didn't know who to predict the future of these companies. He said that Ethanol usage would probably increase over the years. He also said more companies will get into Ethanol which would thin margins. It's also a commodity company and didn't know how one plant could sustain a competitive advantage as all Ethanol plants are pretty similiar.
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Munger on Ethanol
Charles Munger pointed out that it takes so much fossil fuel to make Ethanol that it currently didn't make too much sense economically.
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Buffett: "Charlie [Munger] and I do not know enough about the business to evaluate it. It depends on government policy and a lot of other variables we're not good at predicting. It's also a very hot area for investors right now, and we don't like looking at things that are hot and easy to raise money for. Generally speaking, agricultural processing businesses have not earned high returns on tangible capital. Ethanol could prove an exception, but I'm not sure how you gain a competitive advantage with any particular ethanol plant."
- from CNN Money
On that note I would tell Bill Gates to sell his shares in Pacific Ethanol.


[...] Warren Buffett and Charles Munger on Ethanol at Deep Thoughts of Eric Schleien [...]