Buybacks can continue for as long as Berkshire has at least $30 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet. Since the conglomerate is sitting on a staggering $347 billion in liquidity right now, Buffett and his team can authorize more buybacks whenever they feel the time (or the price) is right.

Perhaps that’s one reason stocks are selling off globally this morning. While most indexes in Asia and Europe remain near their all-time highs, there is broad-based but mild selling in all of them.

Warren Buffett has loomed over Wall Street for so long that it’s easy to forget how quietly his story began. He started buying his first shares at age 11 and filed his first tax return at 13. From those humble beginnings,