Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett's Omaha

Overview

They come to Omaha by the tens of thousands, flocking to an annual meeting that has become legendary for investors, businesspeople, and fans of one of the most savvy capitalists on the planet. They come to eat steak, buy furniture at a discount, and bask in the brilliance of value investor extraordinaire, Warren Buffet.

Hedge fund founder, financial blogger, and professional skeptic Jeff Matthews got his own highly-coveted ticket to the Berkshire Hathaway meeting held only for shareholders and their guests--and proceeded to post reports on his blog, offering tempting glimpses into the much-discussed meeting. Now Matthews delivers a full-length account of his adventures at this infamous financial hoedown. In addition to offering a thoroughly entertaining first-hand account of Berkshire Hathaway's meeting, he answers questions investor's are asking, including:

• Does Buffett's famed penny-pinching cripple his companies?
• Why does Buffet--a bridge partner and best friend of Bill Gates--not own any technology stocks?
• How does the extremely rational Buffett square his well-known social progressiveness with his lily-white audience of investors?
• Is Buffet really an "Oracle"?
• What information, insights, and ideas do the meeting's attendees pick up-and how do they put this information to use in their own investments?
• Will Berkshire-Hathaway survive his death?

Matthews also applies his financial acumen to harvesting potent lessons from his experiences that you can use as you survey the investment field, from finding how the world’s greatest investor evaluates not only businesses but the people who run them, to the importance of “just reading and thinking” and the value of having a smart, cynical partner. With the dispatches from this exclusive financial carnival, Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett's Omaha puts you at the forefront of an investor's dream come true.

"There are very few secrets to be revealed about a man who really doesn’t have many secrets. But this book does take you inside that secret place – the Mecca of the Midwest. It’s very easy to read and full of classic Buffett-isms – well worth the pilgrimage for those of us who don’t own any Berkshire Hathaway shares or for anyone who wants to learn more about investing from the man who says the first rule of investing it to, 'read everything.'"
--CNBC.COM

Table of contents

Introduction
1: This is Big 2: Why Omaha?
3: The Newspaper Generation
4: The Oracle of Omaha
5: When the Math Doesn’t Work
6: What if Bob Nardelli Had Done This Once in a While?
7: One Word: “Rational”

8: Budding Buffetts and the Best of All Worlds. 9: Artful Dodging10: What Now?11: The Most Versatile Investor in the World 12: “You Don’t Want to Let Him Down”. 13: An Uncomfortable Truth: “The Undeserving Poor” and Mail-Order Brides. 14: Who Do You Trust? Body Language and “What They Laugh About”. 15: Avoiding Catastrophe; Some Bad Advice; and One Unanswerable Question
16: On the Cheap

Biographical note

Jeff Matthews founded Ram Partners, LP, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT, in 1994. His distinctive financial blog, Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up, is regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal’s blog roll and has a loyal following among Wall Street analysts, traders, and portfolio managers, as well as investors around the world.

Back cover copy

Welcome to the “WOODSTOCK OF CAPITALISM”

Omaha Nebraska, Saturday May 3, 2008 The nation’s largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Credit, has collapsed after 38 years of making home loans—-a victim of its own aggressive lending practices, soaring loan losses, and a credit squeeze that forced it to sell out at a fire-sale price.
Bear Stearns, which survived the Crash of 1929 without a single layoff and ranked among the top investment banks in the United States, virtually disappeared overnight after 85 years on Wall Street. Only an 11th hour rescue by JP Morgan and the U.S. Treasury prevented a world-wide financial meltdown.
And 31,000 people have converged on Omaha to hear what Warren Buffett thinks will happen now.
The “Oracle of Omaha” is in the building.
“After reading Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha, my view of Buffett has been radically changed. Jeff Matthews reveals some of Warren Buffett’s most interesting professional foibles and personal blemishes.”—Douglas A. Kass, Seabreeze Partners Management Inc.