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Buffett: Rock star of American capitalism

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-08-26 14:12

Warren Buffett's rock star status is evident from the fact that each year tens of thousands of fans from all over the world travel to Omaha, Nebraska, to listen to him speak at his company Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder meeting.

For many at this event, which Buffett calls the "Woodstock for Capitalists," it is an annual ritual of paying homage to the man who made them money through Berkshire's stock and from his investing and business insights.

Little wonder that Alice Schroeder's insightful biography titled "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," has proved popular among readers. She seeks to explain how Buffett became one of the world's richest men and why he is admired for his business ethics and for uniquely pledging most of his money to philanthropy.

Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are widely read. The letters analyze good and bad businesses, give examples of managers who treat customers and employees fairly while also making good profits, and expose accounting tricks that fool many investors.

Some letters have noted that executives should be paid bonuses only if their company's long-term performance is better than that of industry peers; others have warned of looming disasters - such as the red flag he raised about derivatives morphing into "weapons of mass financial destruction."

During the subprime mortgage crisis that led to the global financial collapse, one of Buffett's letters pointed out that rich people like him should be made to pay a higher tax rate than wage earners like his secretary.

Buffett's most important act has been to donate much of his wealth to the Gates Foundation, to be spent over 20 years mainly on health care and education. As he states: "The idea of passing wealth from generation to generation so that hundreds of your descendants can command the resources of other people simply because they came from the right womb flies in the face of a meritocratic society."

Related readings:  Buffett offers useful advice, while Schwab whines on op-ed pages  Book Review: Dining on the Buffett of wisdom  Buffett's gamble pays off as BYD catches market fancy  Invest like Buffett, not with him for the best results

Unlike most other capitalists, Buffett believes that children should not inherit money just because of the lottery of their birth. He says children should be left "enough money so that they feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing."

By the late 1970s, according to an earlier biography, Buffett had spent $15.4 million to buy 46 percent of Berkshire, including 3 percent for his wife Susan, paying an average $32.45 per share.

With Berkshire stock recently around $87,200, Buffett has grown his wealth nearly 3,000-fold in some 30 years. This massive capital accumulation is based on an investment discipline he learned from Benjamin Graham.

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