-- Warren Buffett last Thursday at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. The Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) CEO was explaining the root of the turmoil in the global financial markets: "Virtually every American...came to believe that home prices could do nothing but go up."  Buffett went on to note that U.S. housing is "a $20 trillion asset class," and that giddy optimism led to "bubble pricing" and "crazy lending."

Lots more video to explore on the Fortune Most Powerful Women page, including ING (ING) wealth management boss Kathy Murphy, Martha Stewart, and Oppenheimer & Co. bank-industry analyst Meredith Whitney. On Friday, during a panel on the tumultuous financial markets led by my colleague Carol Loomis, Whitney was terrific on the topic of Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) battling to acquire Wachovia (WB). America's most powerful bank analyst -- she's No. 35 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list and was on Fortune's cover in August -- contends that Citigroup seriously needs Wachovia (or some other consumer bank with a strong deposit base) to stay competitive with JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) and what would become, with a Wachovia buyout, a mightier Wells. As of this afternoon, Citi had filed suit against both Wachovia and Wells, seeking $60 billion in damages over its deal gone awry. Who could have imagined this even a month ago?

It's difficult to laugh through the pain of all we see happening now, but I have to tell you, Whitney is not only the most powerful analyst on Wall Street today. She's the funniest. On Thursday night at our Most Powerful Women Summit in North San Diego, where our post-dinner activities were bridge with Buffett (Procter & Gamble (PG) group president Melanie Healy won!) and Wii Sports courtesy of Nintendo (NTDO.Y), I hung out in the Four Seasons bar with Whitney and a motley crew of women leaders. Sitting beside me on a sofa, Whitney riffed relentlessly on how she felt "like Jan Brady" in a sea of Marcias: "Look at her," she said, gazing across at one particular glamorous participant of the Fortune powwow. "She's powerful and beautiful. She would have stolen my boyfriend in high school. I know she would have stolen my boyfriend. I can't even look at her..."

For those of you who remember that The Brady Bunch was baby-boomer must-see TV in the 70s, get a load of this coincidence two nights later: On Saturday evening, up in Los Angeles, I was having dinner with Arianna Huffington and her sister, Agape. Who was at the table next to us but Florence Henderson, the original Carol Brady! She looked 38. We Googled her: She's 74. When I shook her hand, Henderson's eyes bulged, and she commanded her husband and daughter and friends: "Shake this woman's hand. It's the best handshake you've ever seen!" Strange.

Carol Burnett was also part of Carol Brady's dinner party. Burnett looks 60. She's actually 75. She acted utterly starstruck meeting Arianna ("I'm soooo glad to see you. I so admire the work you're doing."). When Arianna, the diva of the Huffington Post, introduced the legendary comedienne to me, Burnett burst out , "I love you!" Obviously Burnett believed that I was some celebrity or Nobel Prize winner. Or maybe, just maybe, she's a fan of Postcards. You think?

It was fascinating to have Melinda Gates talk about her heady missions -- find an AIDS vaccine, eradicate malaria, reform U.S. education, bring a Green Revolution to Africa -- just one day after Buffett, the world's greatest investor, talked to us about the essence of investing: "Swing at the easy pitches," said the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) CEO, adding, "It's the opposite in philanthropy. By definition, you're going to have a lot of failures."

That contrasting difficulty of giving money away, in fact, is one of the reasons Buffett has opted to funnel the vast majority of his wealth to Bill and Melinda Gates -- and clearly, they love that philanthropic challenge of disbursing his and their own billions. Melinda, who was the subject of a Fortune cover story that I wrote last January called "Melinda Gates Goes Public", told our gathering of 300 women leaders that she overheard her youngest daughter talking to herself about learning to tie her shoes: "This is difficult. I like difficult," her daughter said convincingly.

As the morning rolled out, we talked a lot about other daunting challenges. Like the global financial markets. My colleague Carol Loomis led that session, with Citigroup's (C) Sallie Krawcheck, Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney, and Barclays Capital (BCS) vice chairman Barbara Byrne, who was in that same role at Lehman Brothers until Lehman went bankrupt last month and Barclays swooped in to rescue the core of its North American operations. ("Surreal" is how Byrne, a 28-year Lehman veteran, described this past month's experience.) 

These panelists' heads were spinning this morning over the news that Wells Fargo (WFC) wants to buy Wachovia (WB) -- potentially thwarting Citigroup's pact to acquire Wachovia's banking business. Whitney, the go-to bank analyst on Wall Street (and No. 35 on our just-released Most Powerful Women list), told the Summit attendees that a Wells-Wachovia deal would be a dire development for Citi given Citi's need to shore up its balance sheet with consumer banking deposits.

Krawcheck, who was Citi's top woman exec until she announced last week that she's leaving the company, had an interesting take on the Wells-Wachovia news and on Buffett's combined $8 billion investments in Goldman Sachs (GS) and General Electric (GE): "These are green shoots in the permafrost," Krawcheck said. Citi's former CEO of global wealth management is typically a pessimist, she admitted, but she's viewing these latest deals -- the rare ones done without government assistance -- optimistically, at least for the world's financial markets. (Good for Buffett too: He's been loading up on Wells Fargo stock this year.)

Just as Carol Loomis was wrapping up the panel, we heard the news that the Senate approved the $700 billion bailout plan. The room full of women leaders applauded. The women on stage looked very relieved.

We closed the Summit with a session on the Presidential race. It included Obama finance chair Penny Pritzker and former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, who is now co-chair of John McCain's campaign. I'll share some fascinating tidbits from that session -- and lots more from the Summit -- next week. Enjoy your weekend!

I scratch my head and wonder "if Buffett is willing to invest $3 billion in one stock in THIS stock market at these economic times, what does he know that I do not?"  Either way, it's very positive news for our economy and stock market that the guy who is essentially the investment guru is willing at this time to invest this kind of money into our markets. 

Read more here about Warren Buffet's upcoming purchase

Systemic risk makes up the majority of what most investment folks consider risk. Very simply it is variance. It is the total margin, both positive and negative, of the possible rates of return. For a stock the possible negative is -100% or total loss of all capital and the possible positive is infinity.  A stock can go up as high as its cash flow allows it.  In more practical terms the total possible can be thought to be +500,000% (Berkshire Hathaway has gone up 400,863% in the last 43 years). So we can reasonably say that any stock has a variance of 500,100% (500,000% + 100%)!

Now we see why mathematicians think that any single stock is tremendously risky! Now as a way to deal with this risk, most investment professionals suggest diversification. What diversification does is truncate the possible rates of returns. For example, if you own 20 stocks it is highly unlikely that all 20 will go out of business. It is also highly unlikely that all twenty will return anywhere near what Berkshire Hathaway did. So we can say with a good degree of certainty that the negative possibilities decrease from -100% to -80% and the positive possibilities from +500,000% to +10,000% (The S & P 500 Index went up 6,840% in the same 43 year time period). So diversification decreases the possible variation of rate of returns from 500,100% to 10,080%. Quite a difference and why mathematicians were so impressed with diversification!

Now, I want you to look at the numbers again. The risk is uneven or skewed. The upside has much more potential than the downside. With diversification you really bring the upside potential down, but only reduce the downside potential by a little.

Warren Buffett does not believe in diversification as a strategy to reduce risk because of this skewed situation. He thinks one can pick companies that have good management, good cash flow, business plans that make sense, products or services that aren't going out of style, and product or name recognition that creates a protective moat around the business. He has demonstrated he can pick good companies. There are many others that do the same thing, just not in a publicly owned company.

The key take-away from this post is to understand that systemic risk equals variance and that it is skewed toward positive results. Your fear of loss of all your money (as opposed to 80% of your money) is costing you much upside potential! My point isn't to tell you not to diversify, but only to illuminate what it is costing you. Knowledge is king!

This 10 year chart of Berkshire Hathaway versus the S & P 500 Index I believe illustrates what I have been saying.  Note, the much tighter range for the S & P than Berkshire.  Berkshire has a much higher systemic risk (variance) than the diversified index!  However, the payoff for assuming this risk is in upside movement!

Next post we will discuss the non-mathematical aspects of risk!

I divide investment risk into four areas, strategic risk, systemic risk, emotional risk, and longevity risk.  Today we will talk about strategic risk.

Strategic risk is a variable that often gets left out of the discussion. It is the risk that your strategy will not give you the needed returns to reach your goal.

It easiest to understand by using specific examples. Let us begin by saying you have built a wealth plan that requires you to get a 10% rate of return from your investments in order to reach your goals. Now you look at the world of investments and you note that the stock market has returned 10% since WWII, real estate has returned 6%, and bonds 6%. So you figure equities is where you want to be.  However, what are the chances you can get this rate of return?  That is the risk.  Since, you can't buy the whole stock market you settle for a broad based indexed mutual fund.  However, all mutual funds have expenses.  Now we know that the average mutual fund has returned around 7.5% over the last 35 years. Not bad, but we can't find a single mutual fund that has returned that high over that long of time period, and certainly we can't find one that has returned 10%.  So that forces us to trade mutual funds searching for funds that are doing well while our existing one is not in order to try to pump up the return.  But research has shown that active trading, on average, lowers our rate of return.  So for this investment we see there is a large amount of strategic risk.

Lets look at real estate. On the face of it a 6% return will not get us anywhere close to our 10% requirement. But, we can safely use leverage with real estate. Lets say we purchase our re investment with a 80% Loan to Value mortgage, so we are leveraged 4 to 1. Now there are huge swaths of the country where putting 20% down will give you a positive cash flow, but lets be conservative and say our expenses equal our costs for this real estate.  For the time being lets not count our depreciation, real estate taxes, and mortgage interest, tax savings.  And lets say we allow our loan to value to go to 50% before we put that equity to use again so we have a two to one average leverage over the long run.  With a two to one leverage situation for every 1% appreciation we get 3% rate of return.  So if over the long run we get the historic average (6%) our rate of return will actually be 18%; well more than we need to reach our goal.  Now what is the strategic risk with real estate? If the long term real estate return is only 4% (33% less than the historic average) we still make our goal with some to spare.  Would we say that our strategic risk is exponentially less than with mutual funds? I would!  Comparing odds, what are you chances of getting 25% more than the historic average for mutual funds compared with getting 33% less than the historic average with real estate? And remember we set aside the tax advantages for real estate, and did not count any positive cash flow that would likely accumulate!

Here is another quick example. The historic average over the last 40 years of an average mutual fund (can't really find a mutual fund that has been around that long with the same money manager) is 7.5%.  The historic average for Berkshire Hathaway over that same time period is 21%.  What are the odds of that Berkshire Hathaway going forward produces returns 1/3 as high as its 43 year history?

Note that financial planners never talk about the strategic risk of any given investment. Nor do they build plans that give you any idea of what the needed rate of return will be to obtain goals. Now you know why.

Let's me teach you how to build the bridge to your goals instead of that bridge to nowhere!

Life is like a snowball. the important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.

Wow!!!....Now how much more, can you be right, about life? As expected, Buffet's life wisdoms continue mesmerizing me.

THE SNOWBALL - the much awaited and highly anticipated book with life experience and life-wisdom of the man known as "The Oracle of Omaha", Warren Buffet is live and available.

Though there have been 'n' number of books concerned about Mr. Buffet's extraordinary gifts as a businessman and investor, THE SNOWBALL offers an unprecedented look into Buffet's life, of his values and his strategies, of his total experiences—all of which combine to tell a great American story.

Unlike any book ever written about Mr. Buffet, this book will be both a life story, and a biography of his ideas. It even takes up the earlier secret topics of Warren Buffet's Love Life.

Warren Buffet, one of the richest man in the world, having once again proved his financial genius in this latest US recession by becoming the Guardian Angel for Goldman Sachs, still maintains his reputation for frugality, wisdom, humor and straight talk which make him seem like just a regular guy, like he might be the billionaire next door! And as you might have seen (if you ever read the About Me section of this blog ), he is the guy who inspires me the most. He is one of my heroes.

The 976-page book is written by former Morgan Stanley insurance analyst Alice Schroeder. She first met Warren Buffet when she published research on Berkshire Hathaway. Her grasp of the subject and insight so impressed him that he offered her access to his files and to himself. Now we could have never expected to get much closer to the God himself than this...isn't it??

My comments  on Snowball??

Go and grab this Bible!!!

MidAmerican's investment was reportedly to support BYD's green technology investments. BYD is supposed to start selling its electric vehicles in China this year and in Europe by 2010. The news caused a jump in the shares of BYD subsidiary, BYD Electronic, which makes cell phones parts.

MidAmerican and BYD are supposed to have a news conference on Monday and provide more details. Given Buffett is widely regarded as one of the best investors of our time, we're hoping to see a lot more alternative energy bets in the future.

http://www.kroll.com/

http://www.aig.com/Home-Page_20_17084.html

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=102&contentid=2092

Those in Washington need to get a cold infusion of ideology.  It seems the only ideology left is Nationalism.  The argument that the United States should be saved because it is too great to fail is a exercise in shamelessness.  Where will they draw the line in defense of ideology?  The answer seems to be... there will be no line drawn.  They will stop at nothing to defend their Nationalistic goal of total domination.  With the use of force where the means are justified to the Nation's ends.   Ideology will only be a tool they will use when it is convenient and fits to the Nationalism that everyone must subscribe.  The Patriot Act is a tool that will used against the "real Patriots" those that truly have ideology.  The people that actually have ideology will be called terrorists and will be denigrated and labeled as "UnUnited Statesians."  They will be considered dangerous to the "Nationalists." The "National ID card" will make is simple to label the true "Nationalists" for separation from the "Evil UnUnited Statesians".  The plan will go forward without a hitch because there are enough of of the ignorant that will accept the lies and propaganda of the fascists.   Fear will be a effective tool of the fascists.  Crisis will be an effective tool of the fascists.  The police will be a tool of the fascists.  The health care system will be a tool of the fascists.

The only place these people can't hide is in the halls of ideology because they will be fleshed out and exposed.  So my challenge to everyone is to get some ideology and think before you act, because the only hope we have left is with the humans that have ideaology.   People must be willing to stand for something other than National Pride.  Pride being the lowest of the positive emotions can be foolish.  Only with an injection of knowledge can Pride be used for good.  "Be one of the few, the proud"...  be a human with knowlege and use your head, before your body is used as a tool... in the "Nationalists" tool shed.

"the biggest mistake I ever made" was letting my late wife, Susie, walk out the door of our Omaha home.

This has been revealed by the revered investor in his authorised biography 'The Snowball.'

According to Mr. Buffet, he gave his wife Susan [Susie - this is what Warren called him], a number of reasons to leave. One was Mrs. Katharine Graham, publisher of 'The Washington Post' and 'Newsweek' . Graham was really impressed by Buffet's investment genius and they even spent time together in her mansion. Susan Buffet "made it plain to several friends that she was furious and humiliated," but astonishingly sent Graham a letter granting her permission to date her husband !!

And even when Warren Buffet was at home, he spent most of his time in his study. And expectedly, his wife, not getting much attention or love as she desired, began a romance with her tennis coach, John McCabe. Then, in 1977, she and McCabe, after informing Buffet, moved into a small apartment in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Susan, expecting that Warren would not be able to look after himself and fall apart without a woman to look after him, arranged for attractive blond Astrid Menks to cook and clean for him. Susan and Warren never divorced. After her death in 2004, he married his companion for 27 years, Menks.

I would like to say here that I am not here to gossip about Mr. Buffet, because he is a man to be respected and not gossip about. And the respect is not because he has made so much money, but because he lives his with such purpose and humility. I am talking about his personal mistakes here for the sake of those who think that their mistakes in love have no parallels. Guys, everyone makes mistakes. Even Warren Buffet did. So cheer up. :-)

And Buffet being a really down-to-earth person, goes on to say -

Susie's departure "was preventable. It was definitely 95% my fault. ... I just wasn't attuned enough to her, and she'd always been perfectly attuned to me. She kept me together for a lot of years. ... It shouldn't have happened."

Warren Buffett/Berkshire Hathaway made three major moves of late using $11 Billion of its $43 Billion cash reserves!  Want to bet against him coming out of this period of time smelling like a rose?  Interesting to see if he is done yet?  Best Buffett quote, "be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."

My area of Florida now has 4 months of stable real estate prices.  Will the media recognize this as a good thing?  Foreclosures still working there way through the system will keep pricing from moving upward anytime soon, but homeowners must be breathing a little sigh of relief!

From Buffett's mentor Ben Graham, "you are neither right nor wrong because people agree with you.  Your right because your facts and reasoning are right."  Get your facts right and practice thinking independently so you can shore up your reasoning!

Finally, whether the politicians agree on a bailout plan or not, should not change your investment strategy nor your wealth creation strategy (that is if you have one!), so don't worry about things you have no control over!

Nothing brings out Mr. Buffet [..to invest..] like the smell of a 'undervalued' company ready-to-die.

Warren Buffet's through his 'legendary' Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is investing at least $5 billion in Goldman Sachs. Now this is a huge thumbs up for one of the survivors of the credit crisis that felled two of its investment banking peers.

But that's not all. In addition to buying $5 billion in preferred stock, Berkshire also got warrants to buy another $5 billion in Goldman's common stock. Goldman on its own, would raise another $2.5 billion in its own public stock offering.

I was actually planning to title my post as Warren Buffet Strikes Back. But I thought Mr. Buffet as the guardian angel of the market and so the title. :-)

So why did  Mr. Buffet, buy into Goldman Sachs? This is what he had to say -

"Goldman Sachs is an exceptional institution. It has an unrivaled global franchise, a proven and deep management team and the intellectual and financial capital to continue its track record of outperformance."

A very important point to note here is that Buffet's latest investment comes two days after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, the last two independent investment banks on Wall Street, won approval from the Federal Reserve to change their status to bank holding companies. That is, Mr. Buffet invested in the model of banks and not investment banks. It seems he has no faith left in the investment bank model.

What would have happened if GS had not converted to a bank holding company? The question can best be answered by Warren Buffet himself... ;-)

By becoming commercial banks, Goldman Sachs gets broader access to borrow federal money and the ability to build a stable base of deposits. But it also comes with closer regulatory oversight that likely limit its ability to generate the kinds of sky high profits that were topped by few others companies.

Another major thing to notice here is that Buffet prefers to invest in organization that are usually present in 'unregulated' or partially regulated sectors. But here, Goldman will be under close watch of the Fed. So is Mr. Buffet changing his investment style?

To tell the truth I was really surprised to see Goldman Sachs panicking out, since Goldman stood alone among the investment banks in refraining from participating in the subprime market. Its balance sheet was the strongest, and it was still making money up to the present. Profits fell, of course, but at a time when others are writing off billions, a black bottom line should have kept its stock at healthy levels. When your competitors are all dying, hardy survival should point toward future dominance in your sector. But Goldman had other ideas...

Mr. Buffet was actually asked to buy its assets for 10% of their value; he wanted to pay just 5%, so it wasn't a good enough deal. Buffet only commits his money when there is a very high chance of profit. He would have made money on even at 10%, and clearly the firm's positions appeared to be eventual winners when the market settled down, but on short notice saw no reason to take on any risk. Buffet has passed on other potential deals as well, including Bear Stearns last year.

For a long time, Buffet had avoided Wall Street since he came to Salomon Brothers, when it was hit by a trading scandal in 1991.  He had bought a $700 million stake in the company four years before. He eventually turned a profit on the investment, but it was a long and difficult experience for him.

A really interesting observation of mine is that I think Warren Buffet's $5 billion are much more important than Fed's $700 billion. You must be thinking that I am out of my mind. But just think about it. Warren Buffet is THE MAN OF THE MOMENT.  He is a deep value investor and always picks the bottom. So he seems to have sensed the bottom. And that should be a very pleasant news for the people. 

And yes, during the credit boom, there were some idiots who kept on saying that Warren Buffet had lost his touch. Now the Berkshire Hathaway boss has collected what looks like a canny investment in Goldman Sachs. And those idiots are nowhere to be heard. Why? They have been crushed by their own stupid-high-risk portfolios. :-)

Hail Mr. Buffet

In any event, as the press release from Goldman Sachs indicated, the Berkshire Hathaway investment consisted of the following:

• A $5 billion private placement preferred stock purchase agreement, with a 10% dividend and a call option at a 10% premium
• $5 billion in warrants to purchase common stock at $115/share for five years
• Separately, Goldman Sachs indicated that they would do a secondary public offering in the amount of $2.5 billion in common stock.

These agreements haven't been made publicly available as of the time of this writing, so I've posted some links to sample stock purchase agreements and warrant agreements for those of you needing to use these types of legal agreements in your own work, but once they are available you can immediately find them at www.RealDealDocs.com, which provides thousands of lawyers and business professionals with easily searchable access to millions of legal agreements and contracts from top law firms, including searchable agreement clauses, profiled and searchable the way professionals thinking about them.

A new European private jet company has made its debut with a USD$1.5 billion order for 110 Bombardier aircraft it hopes to sell or lease to wealthy individuals -- despite the current financial climate.

Jet Republic, which is backed by Austria's Euram Bank, has confirmed an order for 25 Learjet 60 XR aircraft, with options to purchase 85 more.

It will sell shares in each jet or rent each out on an hourly basis -- a format it expects to appeal to those cutting costs due to the economic downturn.

"The challenge in financial markets means it makes more sense to buy a fraction (of an aircraft)," said chief executive and founder Jonathan Breeze, who is also an investor.

Jet Republic, which will fly between some 1,000 airports in Europe and be based in Portugal, will compete with NetJets, a plane-sharing company owned by investor Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway.

Bombardier said in June it had taken an order for 110 Learjets from an unnamed European buyer. The 25 confirmed were included in the group's 222 orders in its half year to end July.

Bob Horner, senior vice president of sales at Bombardier, said he was confident the group could continue its growth pattern.

"If there is a blip, it will be only temporary," he said on the sidelines of the Jet Republic presentation.

(Reuters)

In case you haven't heard, Buffett is the man of the hour on Wall Street. He's agreed to give Goldman Sachs a "cash infusion" of $5 billion in exchange for preferred shares in the investment bank, which is converting to commercial bank status to get a little more government protection.

I did my duty on various blogs and pointed out that Warren Buffett is not a "buffet," a little mental note that has prevented me from misspelling the Oracle of Omaha's name on many occasions.

I wouldn't have tried to calculate Buffett's chart on my own, but looking at the horoscope for Buffett proposed by Ciuboda at Living Astrology got me thinking.

Ciuboda's got Buffett as a late Gemini rising, with martial Mars quite close to the Ascendant, but Buffett doesn't seem that combative to me. Of course, Mars is in Cancer so if someone writes in and says he's read articles about how Buffett gets teary-eyed and sentimental at the drop of a hat, I'll believe in this chart.

I don't have the time or patience to rectify. We'll leave that to the pros like Michael WolfStar. Here's my seat-of-the-pants calculation:

I believe that Buffett, who was born in Omaha on Aug. 30, 1930, is a Virgo rising with Sun and Neptune conjunct on the Ascendant. If you look at Buffett, he dresses like an accountant -- very Virgoan. The Neptune on the Ascendant would be the reason why he's known as the "Oracle of Omaha" since Neptune is quite visionary.

Buffett's still going strong at 78, so that could indicate a Sun on the Ascendant, which gives good health and vitality. He has a sunny disposition and is always smiling.

The Sun/Neptune combo in humble Virgo is also his folksiness -- personally writing a letter to shareholders every year in the annual report of his main investment vehicle, a publicly traded company named Berkshire Hathaway. (Most CEOs have the PR department write such correspondence.) Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha has kind of a state fair feeling to it, with lots of exhibits and diversions for shareholders. It's been dubbed the "Woodstock of Capitalism."

By living simply, Buffett is celebrating the common man. But he's not a stick in the mud: He likes a little good-old fashioned fun.

A couple of other thoughts: The modest house that Buffett lives in? That's camouflage. That's why I've got Scorpio on the fourth house cusp. The Moon in exotic, free-thinking Sagittarius is inside Buffett's fourth house, which rules home and family.

Guess what? After his first wife Susie passed away in 2004, Buffett married his longtime partner, Astrid Menks, a Latvian immigrant who ended up waiting tables in Omaha. Susie, who moved to San Francisco in 1977 to pursue political interests and a cabaret singing career, encouraged Buffett's relationship with Menks. The three used to send out Christmas cards together. Not what you would expect from a buttoned-down Omaha businessman. So, Moon in Sagittarius: The first wife is open-minded and the second one is a foreigner.

Buffett had a close, possibly intimate, friendship with Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. In her biography Personal History, Graham credited Buffett with showing her the ropes of business after he made in an investment in the family-controlled company.

Graham, best known for publishing the stories that exposed the Watergate scandal and forced President Richard Nixon to resign, was thrust into running the paper and its other media operations after her husband committed suicide. So the Moon in Sag shows up as the lady publisher.

Where does Buffett's tremendous wealth come from? I think it's due to the conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto in Cancer in the 11th house, which ancient astrologers considered a very lucky house indeed. Think about it: Pluto the Intensifier and Jupiter the Expander in Cancer, the sign that rules food and sustenance. No wonder so many people have turned "Buffett" into "Buffet."

Check out Buffett's chart.

Thanks to Astrodienst, I've run the horoscope with transits of July 4, 1776. No, Buffett wasn't one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. However, like many prominent Americans he has strong connections to the U.S. chart. Buffett has been a champion of American brands, often investing in them when they were out of fashion on Wall Street, and staying in the shares for the long haul.

Like the U.S., Buffett is going to face a lot of financial stress when Pluto starts moving in Capricorn over the next two years. In fact, some astrologers use his chart (even without a correct time of birth) as a surrogate for the U.S. economy.

I've filed Buffett under Heroes, not because he's worth about $60 billion, but because he's giving away the majority of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Founded by the chairman of Microsoft and his wife, the foundation is using Buffett's dough to improve access to health care and education in developing countries.

Buffett also was smart enough to label derivative instruments such as credit default swaps as "financial weapons of mass destruction" long before Wall Street got into the mess it's in.

No wonder they call him the Oracle of Omaha.

--Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BERK) and billionaire investor, to Fortune's Nicholas Varchaver in his cover story, "What Warren Thinks..." On Tuesday Goldman Sachs (GS) announced that it will receive a $5 billion dollar investment from Buffett's company, a move that could help boost confidence in the market.

Last week U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, coordinated a bailout of American International Group (AIG), after refusing to rescue Lehman Brothers (LEH) earlier in the week (Barclays (BCS) subsequently agreed to buy Lehman's North America unit).  During the week prior, Paulson orchestrated a federal takeover of Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) and in March brokered a deal for JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to acquire Bear Stearns.

Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger is available at Amazon for $27.68. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

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Other Products of Interest

• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings (Wiley Investment Classics)
• The Dhandho Investor: The Low - Risk Value Method to High Returns
• The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers
• The Warren Buffett Way
• Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond (Wiley Finance)

Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world�s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term �simple.�

When Alice Schroeder met Warren Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself that he would never write.

Never before has Buffett spent countless hours responding to a writer�s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates�opening his files, recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, as The Snowball makes immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffett�s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people�s lives. This book tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American success story of our time.

From the Hardcover edition.

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