Buffettology: The Previously Unexplained Techniques That Have Made Warren Buffett the World’s Most Famous Investor
There are plenty of books about Warren Buffett available at any bookstore or library. What makes this one unique is that it is not written from the perspective of Warren Buffett’s cult following. After her divorce with Warren Buffett’s son, Mary Buffett capitalized on a rare opportunity to publish insider information about one of the richest people in the world and his investment strategies.
Rather than quote Warren Buffett’s shareholder letters to death like most authors, Mary sticks to the details of Warren’s investments, how he made each choice and how it worked out. She provides a lot of quantitative data that is useful for reverse-engineering Warren Buffett’s portfolio.
Information from this book definitely helped me refine a few aspects of my investing philosophy and my screening process. Mary is concise and unemotional, making this a quick and productive read.
The New Buffettology
This sequel to Buffettology updates Mary Buffett’s analysis of Warren Buffett’s investing strategies from the first book. It is a fine addition to the library of materials available about Warren Buffett, adding new investment decisions from his history that I had not previously read about. It also brings readers of the 1997 Buffettology up to speed on developments getting into the 21st century, when the bubble of the 1990s burst, hurting many portfolios, but creating new opportunities for patient value investors.
This book has a misleading title, which may or may not be the author’s fault, but it is a valuable resource for considering the possible technological developments of the next several decades. Dr. Michio Kaku focuses a lot more on biology than physics, which is the one thing I found disappointing about the book. However, his coverage of nanotechnology makes a nice recovery.
While it seems a little early to write a “history of the 21st century,” The World Is Flat is full of amazing insights that reshape the way we look at our world. What do the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Netscape IPO, and 9/11 all have in common? Thomas L. Friedman shows how these and other events are both causes and effects of the flattening of the world that has been on a fast track from 1989 to today.
This book introduces the reader to the letters that Warren Buffett writes to his shareholders in the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report. Buffett also includes a “Shareholder’s Manual” in the report, which Rittenhouse uses material from as well. This is a great introduction to fundamental concepts of value investing, the strategy which Buffett has used to build a personal net worth of over $70 billion.
Econ4All 