My general point being that even if he's aware and picks some number less than 5% inflation (which is debatable), sitting on a giant cash pile and getting fear paralysis or whatever it is he's waiting on (clearly not a buying opportunity) isn't what a present day champion would do. But thats fine. Just can't expect him to be the past champion he once was.
Also Buffet is old enough to have remembered other "pandemias" and times of volatility. He was there during the hong kong flu of 69. He was around when Polio was a thing. Hes been through Black Monday and 9/11.
Tons of money to be made in volatility. You're using that word in a negative manner. Volatility up is a great thing.
Buffet is well known to play long, big, safe, predictable bets, with recent exception with airlines with bad COVID timing. All this is consistent with his personality and history as an investor.
Realistically his cash liquidity has been dramatically rising but has not ever topped $150 billion:
https://ycharts.com/companies/BRK.A/cash_on_hand
So you're about $100 billion off-target in paper value, but what's $100 billion betwen friends?
OTOH your perception could be quite accurate as to how powerful an effect he may be able to enjoy with so much cash.
Probably could get more accomplished than someone having "only" $250 billion worth of credit.
Of course one is parking lots full of 18-wheelers full of hundred-dollar bills, and the other is a promissory note.
A convoy like that coming in to any city could initiate changes that could not be stopped.
Look at what drug cartels are doing and they usually don't even fill one semi-trailer with cash.
Buffet's huge stake in America itself puts him at an order of magnitude not often seen, not much differently than when the dollars were backed by gold, and for him his position in the US does not come under threat even as the currency becomes devalued. He can stll afford to build cash reserves faster than they are being devalued internationally.
For the Saudis and their convoys of world currencies, there would be pressure to sell the lowest performing one(s) so they could buy more of the notes having a more positive outlook.
Buffet talks pridefully about holding $250+ BILLION in cash, as if it were pegged to a gold standard. Nearly half his life was based on such a system, and so it’d be hard to remove that idea.
Yet he sits on it proudly seemingly unaware that sitting on such an amount has eaten up 3%+ via the printing press of the FED.
That and you know... not buying when everyone was selling back in March. Selling out of the airlines seems like a rookie mistake but to a 90 yo, flying again is actually a “never again” due to his age.