Share Price Heaven
[Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway (“Berkshire”), or any other entity referenced. Edina Realty is a subsidiary of Berkshire.]
Before I got religion on Amazon, you could say I was an “Amazon atheist” (or at least, an “Amazon Agnostic”).
How could an over-stretched, loss-accumulating retail Behemoth enter new industry after industry, vanquish the incumbents, then move on to 
seemingly disparate new markets to up-end (er, “disrupt”).
All without earning the ire (if not opprobrium) of investors, regulators, etc.
Well, that was $100 billion ($400 billion?) ago in market cap.
Suffice to say, a rising share price can overcome almost all sins (save sexual misconduct — has anyone alleged that about Amazon?).
Devouring Whole Foods
All of which leaves the $64 thousand billion question: what’s next?
A decade ago, asked what the future held for Amazon, I would have quoted economist Herbert Stein: “”whatever can’t go on forever” — money-losing, anti-trust law-skirting, etc. — “won’t.”
Now?
Who knows??
Is there any reason the company that now sells you entertainment, groceries, cloud storage, clothing, books, household necessities, etc. couldn’t also sell you . . . . cars, gas, drugs, medical care, airline tickets, annuities, and index funds?
And eventually, maybe even national defense, local police and fire protection, garbage collection, and . . . (yikes!) tax collection? (it would just be billed as “privatization”; See, “Putin, Vladimir”).
Yeah, that’s right, Amazon!
Stop picking on Wal-Mart and Target.
Go after the Pentagon and the IRS!
See also, “Is Amazon a Costco-Killer?”; “Does Amazon Violate U.S. Antitrust Law?” ; and “Parsing Amazon’s Q2 2017 Results (Pssst! Don’t Bother Calculating the P/E Ratio).”
