Funds at Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway were valued at $53.6 billion as of March 31, 2011.

During the quarter Warren Buffett had 26 total positions. Here are the holdings as of March 31.

SOURCE: http://stockpickr.com/pro/portfolio/warren-buffett//

Symbol / Co	Last Price	Change	Analysis
KO The Coca-Cola Co	$68.69	-0.50 (-0.72%)	24.75% of portfolio. 8.72% held. 200 million shares. Position unchanged.
WFC Wells Fargo & Co	$28.58	-0.39 (-1.35%)	20.27% of portfolio. 6.5% held. 342.62 million shares. Position unchanged.
AXP American Express Co	$50.48	-1.09 (-2.11%)	12.79% of portfolio. 12.61% held. 151.61 million shares. Position unchanged.
PG Procter & Gamble ...	$62.20	-0.89 (-1.41%)	8.82% of portfolio. 2.74% held. 76.77 million shares. Position unchanged.
KFT Kraft Foods Inc	$34.53	-0.38 (-1.09%)	6.16% of portfolio. 6.02% held. 105.21 million shares. Position unchanged.
JNJ Johnson & Johnson	$65.23	-0.69 (-1.05%)	4.71% of portfolio. 1.56% held. 42.62 million shares. Position unchanged.
COP ConocoPhillips	$73.13	-0.48 (-0.65%)	4.34% of portfolio. 2.04% held. 29.1 million shares. Position changed by -8,000 shares.
WSC Wesco Financial C...	$384.50	-0.41 (-0.11%)	4.14% of portfolio. 80.1% held 5.7 million shares. Position unchanged.
WMT Wal-Mart Stores Inc.	$53.25	-0.34 (-0.63%)	3.79% of portfolio. 1.12% held. 39.04 million shares. Position unchanged.
USB U.S. Bancorp	$26.22	-0.52 (-1.94%)	3.4% of portfolio. 3.59% held. 69.04 million shares. Position unchanged.
MCO Moody's Corporation	$35.45	-1.97 (-5.26%)	1.79% of portfolio. 12.39% held. 28.42 million shares. Position unchanged.
WPO Washington Post C...	$419.82	-6.98 (-1.64%)	1.4% of portfolio. 25.12% held. 1.73 million shares. Position unchanged.
MTB M&T Bank Corp	$87.14	-1.11 (-1.26%)	0.89% of portfolio. 4.46% held. 5.36 million shares. Position unchanged.
COST Costco Wholesale ...	$78.39	-2.16 (-2.68%)	0.6% of portfolio. 1% held. 4.33 million shares. Position unchanged.
USG USG Corp	$11.49	-0.58 (-4.81%)	0.53% of portfolio. 16.6% held. 17.07 million shares. Position unchanged.
TMK Torchmark Corpora...	$40.19	-0.96 (-2.33%)	0.35% of portfolio. 3.64% held. 2.82 million shares. Position unchanged.
GE General Electric Co	$18.11	-0.45 (-2.42%)	0.29% of portfolio. 0.07% held. 7.78 million shares. Position unchanged.
SNY Sanofi	$38.22	-1.52 (-3.82%)	0.27% of portfolio. 0.16% held. 4.06 million shares. Position unchanged.
UPS United Parcel Ser...	$70.21	-1.38 (-1.93%)	0.2% of portfolio. 0.2% held. 1.43 million shares. Position unchanged.
GSK GlaxoSmithKline PLC	$44.30	-0.59 (-1.31%)	0.11% of portfolio. 0.06% held. 1.51 million shares. Position unchanged.
MA MasterCard Incorp...	$303.09	-9.67 (-3.09%)	0.1% of portfolio. 0.18% held. 216,000 shares. Position new.
BK Bank of New York ...	$25.10	-0.61 (-2.37%)	0.1% of portfolio. -1.4% held. 1.79 million shares. Position unchanged.
XOM Exxon Mobil Corpo...	$83.31	-1.06 (-1.26%)	0.07% of portfolio. 0.01% held. 421,800 shares. Position unchanged.
IR Ingersoll-Rand PLC	$37.62	-1.98 (-5.00%)	0.06% of portfolio. 0.19% held. 636,600 shares. Position unchanged.
GCI Gannett Co Inc	$13.11	-0.50 (-3.67%)	0.05% of portfolio. 0.73% held. 1.74 million shares. Position unchanged.
CDCO Comdisco Holding ...	$6.50	1.30 (25.00%)	0.03% of portfolio. 38.18% held. 1.54 million shares. Position unchanged.

Gold Short ETFs a Solid Contrarian Debt Ceiling Bet

By Kevin Baker

NEW YORK (TheStreet Ratings) -- With the spot price of gold topping $1,600 an ounce, the two main exchange-traded funds tracking gold are riding high.

The iShares Gold Trust (IAU_) and SPDR Gold Shares (GLD_) have each gained more than 22% in the last year. Global concern that the United States of America might abandon its position of full faith and credit by defaulting on its debt and spending obligations has reached a fevered pitch.

Excessive brinksmanship has set up a potential contrarian trade opportunity to bet against gold. If the level heads on Wall Street demand Congress find a middle of the road compromise, a correction in the inflated price of gold could happen in the first week of August.

Shorting gold futures opens speculators to the leveraged risk of unlimited losses. A moderately less risky way to attempt to gain from a sudden pullback in the price of gold is to buy exchange-traded funds leveraged to the inverse price of gold or gold miners. As long as you are not trading on margin,your losses can be capped at 100% of your investment.

Key short gold ETFs to consider are PowerShares DB Gold Short ETN (DGZ_), PowerShares DB Gold Double Sht ETN (DZZ_), ProShares UltraShort Gold (GLL_), and Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 2X (DUST_).

None of these ETFs are appropriate for long-term holdings. So, whether Congress and the President are forced to kick the can down the road making the trade lose money, they strike a grand compromise with the trade working out, or any other scenario, exiting the short position in early August may be wise.

With any trading vehicle it is important understand the unique risks involved. As you can lose money, be sure to read the prospectus of each security before investing.

-- Reported by Kevin Baker in Jupiter, Fla.

For additional Investment Research check out our Ratings Research Center.

SOURCE: http://www.thestreet.com/story/11192632/1/gold-short-etfs-a-solid-contrarian-debt-ceiling-bet.html?cm_ven=RSSFeed

Quick Debt-Ceiling Fix Impeded By Congress' Tricky Rules

by David Welna

There are now two competing proposals to raise the debt ceiling by the Treasury Department's August 2 deadline.

The one put forward by House Speaker John Boehner requires another raising of the debt ceiling before next year's elections. The other, coming from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, would increase the debt limit sufficiently so that it would not have to be done again until 2013.

But the deadline is eight days away now, and there's real concern there may not be enough time for either proposal — or a compromise version of the two — to get enacted by Congress.

One reason for that concern is the amount of time it takes to turn a proposal for raising the debt ceiling into actual legislation. Beyond the time needed to draft a bill (perhaps a day if it's a rush job,) there's also the requirement that it be "scored" by the Congressional Budget Office to verify its impact on the federal budget.

That scoring often takes two weeks, but it could be speeded up in an emergency situation like the one Congress now faces.

Moving a bill through the House is fairly simple. Presumably House Speaker John Boehner would waive the GOP's rule that legislation be available for members to study 72 hours before they vote on it. Once the bill is on the House floor, it generally can be finished in a day in a chamber where the majority holds most of the cards.

The Senate is entirely a different matter. In that 100-member body, it takes at least a 60-vote supermajority to limit debate and move to a vote.

So the GOP minority can stop anything with just 41 votes. And, because the chamber operates by unanimous consent, one senator alone can prevent the Senate from moving forward.

If a senator objects, which is highly likely in this case, it can trigger 30 hours of debate before a preliminary vote is taken to allow the Senate to actually proceed to the bill. If that vote is successful, there is then a 30-hour waiting period before the bill itself can finally be taken up.

That 60-hour debate-and-waiting period process? It can be triggered again if any senator objects to ending debate for a final vote. That's 120 hours of debate just to get to that vote.

How would this all play out in the coming days? Boehner and his House Republicans are likely to bring their two-stage lifting of the debt limit to the House floor, possibly by Wednesday. That means the Senate might be able to take it up as soon as Wednesday evening, if Majority Leader Reid should deign to give that bill the Senate's consideration (which is far from certain.)

If any senator objects to taking up the House bill, the 120 hours of required debate could kick in. And if the Senate stayed in session around the clock and if 60 senators or more voted to move past the procedural hurdles, the bill could be ready for a final vote next Monday, in time for President Obama to sign it into law Tuesday, Aug. 2.

All that assumes that the Senate does not amend the House bill, in which case it would have to be sent back to the House for final approval.

But that scenario isn't likely to happen. Much more probable is that Reid introduces his own debt-ceiling raiser in the Senate, possibly as soon as Tuesday, July 26.

It's virtually certain GOP senators would raise procedural obstacles, making it necessary for the Senate to stay on the bill at least until Sunday. And that's assuming the 51 Democrats and two Independents who caucus with them would be joined by at least 7 Republicans to reach the 60 vote threshold needed to move forward.

The bill would then be sent to the House, where it could be voted on possibly Monday, Aug. 1.

The problem with these two scenarios is that there may not be enough votes in both chambers to enact either one of them. In that case, some compromise that could get sufficient bipartisan support would have to be cobbled together in a hurry-up conference committee.

At that point, the rules of the Senate would still enable any senator to object to expedited consideration of such a compromise. That might mean it would take the rest of next week to deal with any new bill that might emerge if the two plans out there now don't get passed.

All of which is to say, there's really no time to spare for lawmakers aiming to avoid an August 3 default.

SOURCE: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/07/25/138679387/any-debt-ceiling-fix-clouded-by-congress-tricky-rules-for-passing-laws