A chief executive foolish enough to boast that “not a dime” had been returned to shareholders in more than four decades might risk being tarred and feathered at his next annual meeting. But investors would build statues to the one who actually said so at his “Woodstock for capitalists” this year. Warren Buffett has used those retained earnings to produce an astounding 500,000 per cent cumulative return since 1965.

Now he is changing tack by authorising a share buy-back. Mr Buffett may be breaking precedent, but he is not being inconsistent. He often cites his mentor Benjamin Graham’s allegory about an emotionally unstable business partner, “Mr Market”, who wants to alternatively buy your stake or sell you his. Now that the market has priced Berkshire Hathaway at what he considers an unreasonable 17 per cent discount to book, he is buying.

This comes just a year after he held his nose and issued $10bn in shares to help buy railroad BNSF. With the only limits being a maximum 10 per cent premium to book and keeping cash above $20bn, the buy-back could exceed what he spent on BNSF. He had nearly $50bn in June. Even after shelling out $14bn between Lubrizol and Bank of America, Berkshire could have replenished its pile by year-end.