Debt Net Margin ROE 5-yr. No No NMK neg. Yes No Simple Ave. Steady revenue and EPS growth is defined as increases every year from 1994 to 1999. A competitively-beset business such as USAir requires far more managerial skill than does a business with fine economics.
Mistakes occur at the time of decision.
In the 1990 Annual Report I correctly described this deal as an 'unforced error,' meaning that I was neither pushed into the investment nor misled by anyone when making it. Rather, this was a case of sloppy analysis, a lapse that may have been caused by the fact that we were buying a senior security or by hubris. Ironically, as Buffett was writing those words in early 1995, USAir was beginning a remarkable rise from the ashes. But not long afterward, Robertson began to buy, inexplicably ignoring the awful cyclicality and economic characteristics of this industry that Buffett had so clearly laid out in his annual letters. As the stock fell, Robertson refused to admit his mistake and, in fact, worsened it.