Between 1968 and 1990, Warren Buffett moves away from his investment partnership and guides Berkshire Hathaway as his new investment vehicle. Increasingly, he invests in private companies and builds up his asset base in insurance, regional banks, and other control assets such as Nebraska Furniture Mart and See’s Candies. Fundamentally, we also see Buffett gradually shift focus from investing in stocks that appeared cheap compared to their asset values to incorporating more qualitative factors when selecting his investments.
The economic context of the years between 1968 and 1990 was complex. The end of the 1960s was characterized by booming stock markets and few value opportunities. It was in fact because of this economic environment that Buffett closed his partnership in 1968. In 1969, the market finally broke into the first of a sequence of market crashes that continued for several years. The 1970s were tough years for the stock market, with the markets ending the decade with the S&P 500 at around the same level at which it had started. In the interim, there were two major economic recessions: one in 1974, which included one of the largest stock market crashes of recent times, and another in 1979. Inflation also became rampant in the late 1970s with interest rates shooting up to 15 percent by the end of the decade.
The 1980s was then the decade when inflation was brought under control through policies implemented by Paul Volker. Soon to follow were the proliferation of company debt and the rise of junk bonds and corporate takeovers. Large blue chip companies were not safe with business people like Ivan Boseky acting in financial markets. However, after a brief recession in 1982, a long period of economic prosperity and stability in the financial markets began, which lasted until 2000.