Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) said on Tuesday that it is acquiring Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (BNI) for $44 billion. This is the biggest acquisition ever for Berkshire Hathaway. With this acquisition, Berkshire Hathaway is adding the railroad transportation business to its already diverse range of businesses including retail sales, insurance and financials, newspaper publishing, manufacturing, business services and several regional electric and gas utilities. Berkshire Hathaway, which already owns 22.0% stake in Burlington Northern, has offered $100 per share in cash and stock for the remaining portion of the holding. The transaction which is contingent on approval by two-thirds of Burlington’s outstanding shareholders is expected to close by first quarter of 2010. Burlington Northern will continue operating from its Fort Worth, TX headquarters. Berkshire Hathaway also announced that its Class B common share (BRK.B) will be split off into 50 ...

The first thing I do when I sit down at my desk in the morning is check the price of gold. The second thing I do is check the price of oil.  Sure, the price for gold and oil changes all the time. Prices go up and down, for good and bad reasons. Heck, sometimes prices fluctuate and the reasoning defies logic.

Still, I watch the price points. Deep down, I’m looking to see if the prices for gold and oil are following my long-term view of what ought to happen. That is, my long-term view is that both gold and oil prices are going to rise to astonishing heights.

Scarcity rules. That’s the foundation of my investment thesis. Today, I’ll explain my thinking about gold and leave oil for another time.

Reviewing the Gold Landscape

The first thing to understand, as an old geology professor at Harvard once told me, is that

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