Warren Buffett on the cover of "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life"
Super investor Warren Buffet has made an astounding amount of money for a huge number of people.
At 78, the famously “richest man in the world” is still making mega-deals at the heart of the wildest market in decades. He’s betting on Goldman Sachs. He’s betting on electric cars and Chinese batteries.
Warren Buffet is famous for living in his same old house in Omaha, and saying “give it all away” — and not to your kids. But there’s much more to this man, on strategy, philosophy, upbringing and his way with women. He needs them.
Now the “oracle of Omaha” — maybe the greatest living practitioner of capitalism, champion of mega-philanthropy, critic of the Wall Street “casino” — has opened up in an unprecedented way, sharing his life and philosophy with the author of a huge new biography.
This hour, On Point: Warren Buffett — the man, and philosophy, in full.
You can join the conversation. Do you wish Buffett was steering the bailout? Do you see why he became the world’s richest man? Tell us what you think.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guest:
Alice Schroeder, author of “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life.” A former managing director at Morgan Stanley and insurance industry analyst, Warren Buffett tapped her to write his biography. He gave her unprecedented access and a lot of candor. You can read an excerpt here.
Tags: books, Economy, Warren Buffett
ask Warren how “fairly” insurance is priced? especailly life insurance. did he make his first zillions by taking advantage of actuary tables vs the complexity of insurance policies to charge super huge premiums ??
Posted by dave heiserman, on October 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am EDTTom:
Posted by David, on October 1st, 2008 at 11:31 am EDTOn your mention of Warren’s take on the tax system. How is paying $25-50 million dollars in taxes (for 1 human being of 280 million American’s) equitable, while a another human being pays (yes 30%) but only $10K in taxes? This crap is what feeds into the ‘class warfare’ being shoved out to us on a daily basis. Why do 5% of Americans pay 95% of the taxes. My numbers may be off but not by much. Tell the real story Tom. Ask for the other side of the story please. Don’t be like NBC, CSB and ABC please please! Thank you.
How strong an influence is Charles Munger, Warren’s friend, on his investment choices. I think that Warren credits much of his success to Charlie.
Posted by sally barngrove, on October 1st, 2008 at 11:35 am EDTIt is interesting that Alice doesn’t know about the situation the caller just described, which was not positive. However, Alice just stated that she knows how he thinks. How does she come off the speak for someone else. I wonder how Warren would feel about this.
Posted by J berlin, on October 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am EDTI would have appreciated knowing Warren Buffet’s (or other credible sources) view on the introduction of the buzz word / term “mark-to-market” by conservatives in lockstep for the past few days as one of “tools” not considered by Paulson, Bernake and others crafting the bail out / rescue plan. When I first heard the term on Sunday talk show rounds and repeated in “lockstep” I nearly fell off my chair. Sometime ago I watched a documentary about the rise and collapse of ENRON. The film claimed that ENRON’s failure was due to the company’s abuse of the “mark to market” concept that they pushed thru the SEC. In the October 6th issue of Business Week in Jack Welch’s collum he lists “mark-to market” accounting as one of the contributors to the current crisis. I’m hoping that one of your learned guests can explain the MTM concept to me and your main street listeners. Good idea or illusionary assets / profits? Thank you
Posted by John Sheasgreen, on October 1st, 2008 at 9:43 pm EDTI’m hoping that one of your learned guests can explain the MTM concept to me and your main street listeners. Good idea or illusionary assets / profits? Thank you
In essence “mark to market” requires the components of a portfolio to be assessed at their market value. Since certain mortgages cannot be sold in this market their market value cannot be assessed so they are counted as zero.
Banks object to this because they say when conditions loosen up those mortgages will have real value – so it’s not fair to call them zero and it undervalues their portfolios.
Investors (like me) counter that as of NOW, i.e., in the current reporting period, if there is no market for those securities then their value really IS zero. So as an investor I want to know that. It’s pure speculation what they might be worth at some future date, but if a market ever does develop for those securities then that can be reported in THAT reporting period.
Posted by Peter Nelson, on October 2nd, 2008 at 6:42 pm EDTDavid,
Posted by myqee, on October 6th, 2008 at 2:16 am EDTso what you are saying is that everyone should pay a flat dollar amount regardless of how much one makes for income? that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. you would demand money from homeless people? also, the reason that the top 5% are paying the bulk of the tax burden is because income inequality is at a historic high. If we continued on this road, then only a handful of multi-trillionaires would be paying taxes and the rest would be paying zero — the reason would be that we, including you David, would all be peasants working for the few big land owners. I guess even then you would insist that people pay taxes — I wouldn’t know how without having an income but…
Warren Buffett cannot possibly be as humble and engaging as he comes across on TV. You don’t become the richest man in the world by being so unfailingly gregarious. There must be a take no prisoners side to Warren Buffett’s personality.
Posted by steve e., on November 7th, 2008 at 4:24 am EST[...] severely digress. The point is I fell prey myself to author, Alice Schroeder hawking her book “Warren Buffet: The Snowball Effect and Business of Life” recently on NPR. I was [...]
Posted by BG’s Blog: The Ego Has Landed » Blog Archive » Warren B. is a true G(angster) and Oprah is the Devil, on January 7th, 2009 at 2:23 am EST