Buffett Watch: Portfolio Continues to Melt

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This blog post originally appeared on RealMoney Silver.

"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

-- Senator Everett Dirksen

Something tells me we aren't in Omaha anymore!

It's melting, it's melting!

Specifically, Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A Quote) investment portfolio and derivative position continue to melt.

According to my calculation -- Berkshire's year-end book value was $109.5 billion -- Berkshire Hathaway has experienced nearly another $3 billion pretax loss today, which includes a pretax loss of $1.75 billion in Buffett's investment portfolio and another $1.15 billion pretax loss in his short put position.

Doug Kass writes daily for RealMoney Silver, a premium bundle service from TheStreet.com. For a free trial to RealMoney Silver and exclusive access to Mr. Kass's daily trading diary, please click here.

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Know What You Own: Berkshire Hathaway holds large stakes in stocks such as Wesco Financial (WSC Quote), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI Quote), Moody's (MCO Quote), Washington Post (WPO Quote), USG Corporation (USG Quote) and American Express (AXP Quote). For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's Investing A-to-Z section.

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