The Snowball Warren Buffett Biography

Warren Buffett Biography - The Snowball by Alice Schroeder

"Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill" - Warren Buffett.

Who is the Oracle of Omaha?

The Oracle of Omaha is Warren Buffett aka the Sage of Omaha aka the richest man in the world and the world's most successful investor.

Warren Buffett has been buying stocks in the current economic and stockmarket crisis, the first time in years that he has been buying stocks, his decisions are based on fundamental analysis not technical analysis. He recently bought $5bn of preferred stock in Goldman Sachs and will invest a further $5bn in common shares over the next five years. He has also invested £3 billion in GE and has a 9.4% stake in Wells Fargo, which has just blindsided Citigroup in a bid for Wachovia. It is highly unlikely that Mr Buffett was unaware of the deal.

Warren Buffett fascinates investors throughout the world and as he has never written any memoirs “The Snowball” by Alice Schroeder will undoubtedly be a best-seller. The first print run is 1 million copies, exceptional by any standards. It would be nice to be able to get hold of a copy signed by Warren Buffett himself as a first-edition investment, but as far as I know he hasn’t signed any. Alice Schroeder has signed a few however, so if she passes through your town in her book-signing tour you might like to pick up one or two copies.

Alice Schroeder has benefitted from unprecedented access to Warren Buffett which has allowed her to explore his life and work with him, and those closest to him. The result is a complete biography of the richest man in the world known as 'The Oracle of Omaha'.

Buffett spent over 300 hours answering questions and giving complete access to his family, friends and business associates.

We learn that at the age of 7 he vowed to be a millionaire before the age of 35 (which he was) and at the age of 10 he determined to be the richest man in the world, which he also is.
He is of course famous for his very careful, long-term approach to investing and back in 2002 he was already describing derivatives as ‘toxic’ and potential “time bombs”. His friend and associate Charlie Munger, was rather more forthright when he stated “To say derivative accounting in America is a sewer is an insult to sewage.”

If you are interested in online stock trading and want to understand Warren Buffett "The Snowball" will undoubtedly be seen as the definitive biography as it is unlikely that anyone else will write one that is so complete.
The biography is up to date, covering as it does the Bear Stearns collapse. Buffett’s also gives his views on the current economic crisis.

“It could all end on a dime if they flooded the system with enough liquidity, but there are consequences to doing that. If dramatic enough, the consequences would be the immediate expectation of huge inflation. A lot of things would happen that you might not like. The economy is definitely tanking. It’s not my game, but if I had to bet one way or another – everyone else says a recession will be short and shallow, but I would say long and deep.”

Given that Warren Buffet likes ice cream we thought he may be interested in How to Make Ice Cream

Books Recommended by Warren Buffett
Homte : Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett and Electric Cars

The Oracle of Omaha - Warren Buffett Latest News

Warren Buffett aka the Oracle of Omaha has acquired another 3.26 million shares in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. , through his company Berkshire Hathaway, taking its stake to 67.9 million.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. now controls nearly 20% of NSFC, the 2nd-largest railroad in the USA. Berkshire finalized the purchases last Monday and Tuesday.

In another development one of Warren Buffett's other investments, in a Chinese-made electric car, has been officially launched in China.

According to the Associated Press BYD's F3DM (quite a catchy name!) was officially presented on Monday at a ceremony in Shenzhen. It has an autonomy of approx. 62 miles on its electric engine (not a lot IMHO), and has a small gasoline engine as back up.

It takes nine hours to charge the battery and is priced at $22,000, similar to other Chinese-made mid-sized cars. All very underwhelming - again IMHO.

There were plans to sell the car in the U.S. and Europe in 2010, but according to Reuters, BYD Chairman Wang Chuan Fu has said the plans have been put back one year to 2011.

According to the WSJ, BYD's electric car is at least a year ahead of any electric vehicles from General Motors and Toyota, at least for the Chinese market .

MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, acquired a 10% stake in BYD for around $230 million. A small stake, but it shows Warrren Buffett's commitment to technologies aimed at reducing dependence on oil.

On a stranger note it appears that corrupt Illinois politician Blagojevich had considered tapping Warren Buffett for $10 million. Some people really are delusional. Berkshire Hathway investors are no doubt highly pleased that Warren Buffett is the shrewd cookie he is and always steers clear of anything that is the slightest bit shady.

I would be interested to hear the Oracle's thoughts on Bernie Madoff's Incredible Ponzi Scheme

Warren Buffett's Biography 'The Snowball and the Business of Life'

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Books Recommended by Warren Buffett
Homte : Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett Short Biography

The Oracle of Omaha - Warren Buffett - A Short Biography

Who is The Oracle of Omaha?

Warren Buffett aka The Sage of Omaha aka The Oracle of Omaha was born Warren Edward Buffett on 30th August 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska.

He is one of the richest men in the world and probably the most famous investor. He is also a great philanthropist and American businessman. He has an estimated net worth of over $60 billion and in February 2008 was ranked by Forbes as the richest man in the world, although it is quite probable, given the current state of stockmarkets worldwide, that this situation has changed.

Warren Buffett is also the largest shareholder and Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway.

His success in the stockmarkets is legendary, and although he isn't infallible, his current net worth is ample proof that he gets it right more often than he gets it wrong. He is famous for his philosophy of ' value investing ', buying companies that perform well and holding them for the very long-term (i.e. decades). Over time the markets go up, so holding on to investments makes sense.

In 2006 his annual salary was $100,000 which is tiny compared to what other CEOs pay themselves. He lives in the same house in Omaha that he bought for $31,500 back in 1958. The house is valued today at around $700,000 (again not enormous for a man of his wealth)

He is also a well-known philanthropist. In 2006, he announced that he would be giving his enormous fortune away to charity, with 83% of it earmarked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In June 2006 he donated approximately 10,000,000 Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill and Melinda Gates' Foundation, worth approximately $30.7 billion at the time. The largest charitable donation ever made. The plan is that the Foundation shall receive 5% of the donation each year in July.

In 2007, Time included Warren Buffett among the 100 Most Influential People in The World.

In October 2008, as the worlwide economic crisis was raging and in the middle of the credit crunch he was buying stocks at knockdown prices, notably Godman Sachs. He buys for the long-term of course, minimum 5 years, time will tell if he was right to be buying.

He famously filed his first income tax return when he was 13 and deducted his bicycle as a work expense for $35.

He married Susan Thompson in 1952 and they remained married until her death in 2004, although they lived separately from 1977 onwards. In 2006 he married his long-time companion Astrid Menks. It was Susan Buffett who had brought about the meeting between Warren Buffett and Astrid Menks before she herself left to pursue her career as a singer.

Warren Buffet has three children but he does not intend leaving a "significant proportion" of his wealth to them. Over the years he has become famous for his quotes - see Warren Buffett Quotes

He is quoted as saying "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing."