Alice Schroeder Interview

[Guest]

Did Buffett cheat on his 1st wife Susan?

 

I went through The Snowball and it said he was with Katharine Graham a lot, but didn't explicity state that he had an affair.

 

I shouldn't care what someone does in his personal life, but I hold him to such a high esteem that I'm curious.

[Myth465]

Yes he did.

[Guest ValueCarl]

Conflicting views? Absolutely! Alice is the first to admit this through the writings I have gleaned on her blog. She has also been influenced negatively by certain, very high I.Q.'s in her world, those whom continue to affect her feelings about him. I still wish she would identify the persons who fall into the the bucket which is closer to "all bad," however. She would be providing a far more valuable service to investors abroad for receiving tainted images of them versus Mr. Buffett, a genius operator and financial maven. Without a doubt, in his field, he is a gift to this world, no matter how one slices it! 

 

Her mixed feelings shouldn't be a surprise to anyone of average intelligence. It conveys the very message I have attempted to articulate on this board, that being, none of them, including Messrs. Buffett, Watsa, Munger or name your pick, "walks on water." Rather than ridicule her, or lambasting her for her blatant honesty depicting a host of feelings derived from factual physical experiences with this special person, one should be thankful for the sharing she continues doing.

 

With this in mind, "The Perfect remains the Enemy of the Good." Mr. Buffett is far from perfect, but he is the best in the world at what he does, that being, the business of business using the tools of finance!  8)

 

The key factor for developing our world into a better place to enjoy life, on the other hand, remains the quality of the characters who consume leading roles in business and politics. It's not the color, religion, race or sex, nor the school which one attends partially attained by I.Q. which matters, rather only "character counts." We should always look at the characters who consume our lives with a skeptical eye, just as Alice is doing, while being unafraid to express our criticisms when criticism is warranted no matter how "important" the leading individual in the pack may be.

 

For the business of finance, there will never be a better leader of the pack, than Mr. Warren E. Buffett. He is the role model for the ages. imo   

[txlaw]

Phenomenal interview.  Schroeder has some great insights in the interview that I've never heard her talk about before. 

 

Major props to Miguel of Simoleon Sense.

[Guest ValueCarl]

I believe I understand what planet Alice may originate from now.

 

From her perspective as she grew through her direct experiences with him, Mr. Buffett became little more than a "human specimen" to be observed, analyzed, researched and studied sufficiently in order for her to capitalize upon directly, and now indirectly as long as her wares will sell, and she doesn't alienate mass audiences from her message.

 

She has placed this complex physical, chemical compound onto her own Petri Dish.   

 

Ironically, Warren E. Buffett became the object of the very things he looks to "exploit" daily, 525,600 minutes yearly, tied to the global financial markets and all of its moving parts.

 

To Buffett's disadvantage, allowing himself to get up close and personal to an attractive blonde, one with superior intelligence, has cost him "some" reputation outside this venue of worshipers, of course.   

 

Take stock in Buffett, who I have stated over time, remains a freak of nature, a genius who will never be replicated again, statistically and probability wise. He is one for the "ages" to remember.  imo   

[tnp20]

Absolutely fantastic set of interviews. Kudos to Miguel.

 

It further confirms my belief that Alice is a very smart and brave lady. She has a very unique and distilled perspective on WEB that can only be garnered when being so close to him and she risked it all by putting the negatives with the positives out there.

 

Buffett stands tall amongst the giants on numerous socio-economic measures , but he is not perfect. Alice is one of the first to bring out the less exposed side of Buffett for which she must be given full credit for.

 

All this nonsense of her trying to monetize on her close relationship with WEB is just bunk...she frankly doesn't need the money. She is smart enough to be successful without ever having met Buffett.......

 

I have found her to be very accessible....

[Guest ValueCarl]

Oh, stop it!

 

This statement is as ridiculous as Alice pointing to people in Buffett's own life, those "Click Whirr" Turkeys, who have the audacity to state that he isn't interested in money!

 

 

<All this nonsense of her trying to monetize on her close relationship with WEB is just bunk...she frankly doesn't need the money. She is smart enough to be successful without ever having met Buffett.......>

 

[dual_bid]

Oh, stop it!

 

This statement is as ridiculous as Alice pointing to people in Buffett's own life, those "Click Whirr" Turkeys, who have the audacity to state that he isn't interested in money!

 

 

<All this nonsense of her trying to monetize on her close relationship with WEB is just bunk...she frankly doesn't need the money. She is smart enough to be successful without ever having met Buffett.......>

 

 

So what if she monetizes her private WeB knowledge?!

Loomis did not through the years?!

Pabrai et al pre/post dinner?!

[Ballinvarosig Investors]

So what if she monetizes her private WeB knowledge?!

Loomis did not through the years?!

Pabrai et al pre/post dinner?!

 

Mary Buffett too.

[Guest]

I really liked this.

 

"Look at it this way. The economy will be struggling to eke out 2% growth for who knows how long. The average business cannot, on average, get 4 – 6% real growth in an environment like that, without some drastic change in relative currency values or some other unpleasant thing that resets the base. Yet all of the assumptions I see are based on 6 – 8% growth and everything else status quo."

 

This could foreshadow some things!

[netnet]

She is very smart; clearly, Buffett chose her for a reason.

 

Interestingly, one could write an explanatory narrative about their relationship.  They were great.  Match made in heaven.  Buffett thought he wanted her to write what she thought was the truth (magical thinking as she calls it) and boom she writes it; he is really upset and just cuts her off.  She feels hurt. She went from an "intimate" of his to nothing.  She lashes out a bit, blah, blah, blah...

 

In any case, she is really smart; she knows Buffett better than any other author and she has interesting things to say. 

 

Well I had dismissed her completely as a "quasi-spurned lover" and I am now re-evaluating my opinion of her.  She is worth reading even when she is a tad resentful at times, or so it seems to me.