“When returns on capital are ordinary, an earn-more-by-putting-up-more record is no great managerial achievement. You can get the same result personally while operating from your rocking chair. Just quadruple the capital you commit to a savings account and you will quadruple your earnings. You would hardly expect hosannas for that particular accomplishment. Yet, retirement announcements regularly sing the praises of CEOs who have, say, quadrupled earnings of their widget company during their reign — with no one examining whether this gain was attributable simply to many years of retained earnings and the workings of compound interest.”

1979 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1979.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)
Context: The primary test of managerial economic performance is the achievement of a high earnings rate on equity capital employed (without undue leverage, accounting gimmickry, etc.) and not the achievement of consistent gains in earnings per share. In our view, many businesses would be better understood by their shareholder owners, as well as by the general public, if managements and financial analysts modified the primary emphasis they place upon earnings per share, and upon yearly changes in that figure.

Presidential Leadership speech http://www.c-span.org/video/?326958-1/presidents-clinton-george-w-bush-leadership (9 July 2015)
2010s, 2015

Source: The Profit Zone (2007), p. 3.

Special Olympics World Games, South Bend, Indiana (1987).

Source: "Investment in human capital," 1961, p. 1

"Citadel Boss Won't Be Hedging On Day Job," Chicago Tribune (March 2006) http://www.healthdecisions.org/StopLossReinsurance/News/default.aspx?doc_id=58379
On competition among hedge funds.