Good interview

[bills_fan]

and cnbc...some really good stuff here.

 

Warren Buffet Interview

 

I love him...even in the darkest days...still an optimist!!

[John Adams]

and cnbc...some really good stuff here.

 

Warren Buffet Interview

 

I love him...even in the darkest days...still an optimist!!

 

He's the anti-Dwight Drane. Stojan, maybe Buffet is the Antichrist. DD, what does Revelations say about the Prophet from Omaha?

[bills_fan_in_raleigh]

and cnbc...some really good stuff here.

 

Warren Buffet Interview

 

I love him...even in the darkest days...still an optimist!!

Well ye he can be an optimist he has plenty of Billions of dollars to throw at the bargains in the market right now.

[bills_fan]

Well ye he can be an optimist he has plenty of Billions of dollars to throw at the bargains in the market right now.

 

 

I once knew a guy who played the market. All he did was whatever Warren did. Didn't know squat. Went out drinking every night, played hoops at lunch and left at 6. But he followed St. Warren.

 

The rest of us worked our tails off trying to figure it all out.

 

He beat us at the end of the year. Bigger bonus, made more cash for his clients. Never told them he was following St. Warren...but they loved him.

[bills_fan_in_raleigh]

I once knew a guy who played the market. All he did was whatever Warren did. Didn't know squat. Went out drinking every night, played hoops at lunch and left at 6. But he followed St. Warren.

 

The rest of us worked our tails off trying to figure it all out.

 

He beat us at the end of the year. Bigger bonus, made more cash for his clients. Never told them he was following St. Warren...but they loved him.

Sounds like someone I know he has just followed what St Warren did and followed, not at the same investment level but he did very well for himself as a personal investor.

[drnykterstein]

lol.. wtf... all of that money billions and billions of dollars, and this is his website??????

 

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

[Lurker]

That transcript should be recommeded reading for every voting age American.

[DC Tom]

That transcript should be recommeded reading for every voting age American.

 

It ought to be required reading for Congress.

[Gene Frenkle]

Sounds like someone I know he has just followed what St Warren did and followed, not at the same investment level but he did very well for himself as a personal investor.

This may be a dumb question, but how does one 'follow' Warren Buffet's moves? How do you keep up and know what he's investing in? Just curious.

[John Adams]

It ought to be required reading for Congress.

 

They would be confused.

[KD in CA]

lol.. wtf... all of that money billions and billions of dollars, and this is his website??????

 

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

 

 

Gee whiz, where's all the flashy stuff and bright colors?

 

 

[John Adams]

lol.. wtf... all of that money billions and billions of dollars, and this is his website??????

 

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

 

I wonder what the lesson here is.

[Lurker]

I wonder what the lesson here is.

It's a good one, no doubt.

[John Adams]

It's a good one, no doubt.

 

I like to call it the "Rivals lesson." Rivals was the flashy (crappy) website; TBD is a the simple elegant design. Which is better?

 

Guess I could call it "the Range" lesson too.

[bills_fan]

This may be a dumb question, but how does one 'follow' Warren Buffet's moves? How do you keep up and know what he's investing in? Just curious.

 

 

Berkshire Hathaway's holdings are made public every year/quarter via filings with the SEC. The filings are easily searchable on the EDGAR database.

 

Also, Buffet's moves are usually reported in the news.

[X. Benedict]

He's the anti-Dwight Drane. Stojan, maybe Buffet is the Antichrist. DD, what does Revelations say about the Prophet from Omaha?

 

I think he says buy cheap. Is that in Revelations?

 

 

I recorded the Charlie Rose interview last night. Looking forward to watching that. But there is too much baseball on.

[TPS]

It ought to be required reading for Congress.

Absolutely!

 

He says he doesn't think it's the best plan; he talks about the RFC in 1930s and how it got preferred shares for its purchases of bad assets; he says we may need another stimulus package that should be targeting low and middle income households--mentioning the payroll tax (where have I heard that before? ). And he says no one saw this coming--The Drane did, and it obviously wasn't luck. He says we need to do something now and he would give paulson a blank check. Well gee Warren, you essentially just bought a $5 billion call option on Goldman Sachs shares, so far everything Paulson has done seems to be benefitting his old company. No conflict of interest between the two of you, is there Warren?

 

As William grieder wrote, why not devise a plan that creates a deal like Warren got? Which is essentially what the RFC did. If we're buying bad assets and supplying capital to the banks and other FIs, why not get "shares" (preferred/warrants)? Because the stupid public should only have the possibility of gaining if the assets are saleable at some point in the future. Stiglitz has a better plan.

 

Stiglitz

[GG]

I'm just a simple guy working in finance, but can someone please, please explain to me how owning preferred stock is better than owning debt when you're looking at a troubled company? (Bankruptcy lawyers need not reply, as it would defeat the purpose of obfuscation)

 

The Stiglitz article has more holes in it than the proverbial swiss cheese.

[DC Tom]

I'm just a simple guy working in finance, but can someone please, please explain to me how owning preferred stock is better than owning debt when you're looking at a troubled company? (Bankruptcy lawyers need not reply, as it would defeat the purpose of obfuscation)

 

The Stiglitz article has more holes in it than the proverbial swiss cheese.

 

Because when you own preferred stock, you actually own a senior piece of the company, so when they do well so do you. Conversely, when you own debt, you have no interest in the company's performance.

 

Apparently. And let's not forget that the bailout plan isn't about owning these companies' debt anyway. It's buying securities from them that they're carrying on the books. The plan isn't to loan Wall Street money, it's to BUY ASSETS FROM THEM. The idea that buying preferred shares with warrants while leaving those assets on the books is laughable. Stiglitz is apparently an idiot.

[Lurker]

As William grieder wrote, why not devise a plan that creates a deal like Warren got? Which is essentially what the RFC did. If we're buying bad assets and supplying capital to the banks and other FIs, why not get "shares" (preferred/warrants)? Because the stupid public should only have the possibility of gaining if the assets are saleable at some point in the future. Stiglitz has a better plan.

 

Stiglitz

Bad analogy, IMO. It does no good to give the banks more capital if they just have to keep marking it down due to recurring losses. We have to attack the root cause of the problem--the impaired assets (home mortgages/MBS) that have no current market value (under fair value accounting) because no private investor will touch them with a 10-foot pole.

 

The government doesn't have to operate under mark-to-market accounting rules and can hold these assets to maturity or resell them in a few years, once the housing market stabilizes. As Buffet said, it's acting as an investor with the strong possibility the Treasury can break even or actually make a little profit if it drives a good deal with the sellers (who IMO will be more than happy to take the Treasury's price to avoid the opportunity cost of further marking these securities down in subsequent quarters).

 

With one million new household formations per year, there eventually will be demand for these properties. And as the saying goes, God ain't making any more real estate.