Right. In fact the financial crisis was a busy few years for Berkshire-Hathaway. Like everyone else they took a drubbing, but they also unleashed a lot of their unused cash to make deals on generous terms.

It helped that they were structurally inclined to build up cash. As Buffet explains, a booming share market is bad for him: everything is too expensive to buy.

So cash piles up, waiting for good deals of sufficient magnitude to arise.

When a bust arrives, there are bargains everywhere and a lot of money to buy into them.