Berkshire Hathaway 2022 meeting: What to expect as Warren Buffett takes the stage

TKer.co Editor Sam Ro joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss Warren Buffett's attitude toward economists' projections and what to expect from the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting.

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JULIE HYMAN: Investors are keeping a close eye on Omaha as Berkshire Hathaway is getting set to kick off its annual shareholders meeting tomorrow. That's after Warren Buffett ramped up investments in Occidental Petroleum and HP. Ticker.co editor Sam Ro, he's there already in Omaha and he joins us now to preview the event.

And you wrote about Warren Buffett in the "Morning Brief" for Yahoo Finance Today, and in particular, how he disdains-- perhaps that's not too strong a word-- disdains the dismal science, as it's sometimes called, that is economics and says he doesn't pay attention to them. So how does this sort of inform his strategy?

SAM RO: So I think one thing to make clear is he always speaks about-- he always criticizes economists in the context of investing and analyzing businesses. So he-- one of his famous quotes is, we think any company that has an economist has one employee too many. And there's two-- I think there's two reasons why he often says this.

First, as we know, economists don't always get this stuff right. Every day, we're talking about if economic data beats expectations, or misses expectations, or whatever. And so to rely on an economist's near-term forecast in terms of constructing business strategy might not be the best bet. But there's also sort of longer term, big picture themes that he talks about.

In recent years, he often talks about how the existence of negative yielding debt is something that very few economists would have ever predicted. But that's the world we live in now. It's not quite as high as it used to be, but there's still something like $1 or $2 trillion worth of negative yielding debt out there. So the question for someone like Warren Buffett, who's analyzing businesses and stocks, is not so much where the economy is going, but if the business that he's been looking into investing can sort of with-- can sort of cope with and manage around what may be near-term and long-term economic challenges.

BRIAN SOZZI: Sam, I'm just curious what is it like to be there-- what is it like to be there for you? And going over there, did you see any Buffett fans on the plane, grabbing dinner? What's the vibe there?

SAM RO: You know, this is my second time out Here and I didn't grow up in Nebraska, but I actually grew up in Kentucky, where people who are millionaire investors in a company don't always wear fancy suits like they're going down to the financial district in New York. It's just-- I don't want to say normal people, but people dressed business casual and they're all around.

And you can tell that a lot of people are Berkshire shareholders. In fact, when I checked into my hotel, there was actually a little card that says, we welcome Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. So it's kind of an interesting sort of event. I guess it's like going to a music festival, right, where a big event happens and the city expects a whole bunch of people of a certain demographic to show up.

But yeah, it's quiet right now because it's Friday. The big event is going to happen tomorrow. But as of now, it definitely feels like a place that's sort of gearing up for a lot of shareholders and one of the largest companies in the world.

JULIE HYMAN: You mean that people don't wear Warren Buffett t-shirts, and hats, and masks on the plane heading out there, Sam? Sam, correct me if I'm wrong-- this is the first post-pandemic live shareholder meeting there has been, correct? And so I would imagine-- I know you can't tell us yet because it hasn't happened yet-- you'll be able to tell us on Monday-- but I imagine it's going to be quite different than it was pre-pandemic.

And I wonder what the attendance is going to be like versus then. But what are kind of the biggest things you're going to be looking out for over the weekend?

SAM RO: Well, you know, I think for me, being out here in-person is more of a personal sort of experience, right? Being able to listen to what he has to say in-person-- it's like going to a concert versus listening to music on an MP3 player or being at a playoff game versus watching something on TNT. So being here is more about just sort of, like, experiencing the presence of this legendary investor and being around shareholders who've been-- many of whom have been invested with them for decades.

So I think that's the big thing in terms of the in-person experience here. As far as what he's actually going to be saying at the meeting, I'm really interested to hear what he has to say about the outlook for stocks. He often talks about how he expects stock prices to be higher in the next five or 10 years.

But in the past couple of years, he's always caveated that with the fact that interest rates have been very low. And as we've been experiencing, interest rates have been going up. So the question is, what does he think about the outlook for the stock market in the context of what may be rising interest rates?

BRIAN SOZZI: Sam, enjoy yourself. The past few years, you have been burning the midnight oil, editing lots of content, writing things. Go enjoy yourself, have fun, my friend. Maybe get a Warren Buffett autograph-- you have, in fact, earned it. Sam Ro, Ticker.co editor, we'll talk to you soon.