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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.
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.
Table of Contents
Preface: Pilgrimage to Omaha vii
Part I A Very Rational Place: 2007
Introduction: Wired at Birth 3
1 This is Big 15
2 Why Omaha? 21
3 The Newspaper Generation 35
4 The Oracle of Omaha 43
5 This Motley Group 51
6 The Math Has to Make Sense 59
7 Buffett's Table 63
8 The Time Value of Warren Buffett 67
9 Budding Buffetts: Where to Begin 75
10 The Most Versatile Investor in the World 79
11 An Insider's Information 89
12 "You Don't Want to Let Him Down" 93
13 Intrusion 103
14 Whom Do You Trust? 111
15 Grumpy Old Man? 117
16 Artful Dodging 123
17 One-Half of 1 Percent 127
18 What Now? 133
19 Road Trip 139
20 Buffett's Last Nickel 147
21 "This is a Very Rational Place" 155
Part II Retuin to Omaha: 2008
Introduction: Family Reunion 167
22 Armageddon Avoided 173
23 The 1 Percent 181
24 It's a Beautiful Day 187
25 The Usual Procedure 191
26 In Search of the Oldest Living Manager 197
27 What Would Warren Do? 203
28 A Convulsion That Makes Enron Look Like a Tea Party 209
29 Crying Wolf 217
30 A Particularly Foolish Mess 223
31 Like Breathing 227
32 Secrets in Plain Sight 233
33 Buffett's Radar 239
34 A Family Affair 245
35 The Berkshire Flea Market 251
36 Decline and Fall of The Sainted Seven 257
37 The "Yes" Won't Change 265
38 Yesterday I Died 271
39 His Fondest Hope 277
Coda: Beyond Buffett 283
Notes 287
Index 293
Acknowledgments 297
312 pages, Hardcover