Buffett's Berkshire misjudged derivative risks - papers

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway investment conglomerate has admitted it may have miscalculated the downside risks to the fall of the global markets last year, writes The Telegraph.

Berkshire, which owns everything from private aviation firm NetJets to US car insurance giant Geico, has confessed to the US's leading financial regulator that it underestimated the risks falling stock prices would have on the billions of dollars of derivatives bets it had taken out. The admission to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is contained in a series of letters between the regulator and the company. The revelation came to light as part of a focus by the SEC on how Berkshire - which also owns stakes in Goldman Sachs and General Electric - values the derivatives that ...