The Master Of Money

[Parsad]

Michael Lewis reviews "The Snowball" and discusses Buffett.  Starts off very rough and critical, but actually finishes with a surprisingly unpredictable admission by Lewis.  Cheers!

 

http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=12ef5554-1023-4be9-ad93-681003b280ef

[benhacker]

Great ending to that article.  I like Lewis.  He seems real and his writing is engaging.

[Guest dealraker]

Michael Lewis can do some damn good writing- although at times he seems to let some extreme jealousy out of the box.  I don't know if any of you have ever read the book THE NEW NEW THING about the tech industry and Jim Clark, but that book helped get my head together on what 99 9/10ths of the Internet industry was all about.  Hype the price and then go buy something real and stock options being the largest source of "income" pretty much summed it up on both how those businesses thrived and what would certainly happen in the long run.

[basl1]

I believe that it was to fellows like this that Buffet stated, "You don't need an IQ of 150 to invest. If you do - ngive points away

 

[Rabbitisrich]

I didn't see a Mea Culpa there. Basically, Michael Lewis admitted that his previous Buffett article had been motivated by petty emotions, but he never acknowledged the logical flaws of his work.

 

Even now, he doesn't parse Buffett's statements about the widespread use of derivatives; instead, he parrots the notion that Buffett's use of derivatives is hypocritical.

 

At the end of this article, he links to his infamous critique, mentioned in the Snowball, of Buffett's Solomon purchase. If you criticize someone for making a better than market deal with a company, isn't the logical next step to explore whether that person provided a better than market service to the company?

 

Michael Lewis' books are intelligent and well written, but when he lets his biases run wild, the results are underwhelming.

[Parsad]

I totally agree Rabbit, but at least Lewis' critical articles are more fascinating than anything Doug Kass spews about Buffett.  Lewis does it with a bit more flair, which makes for better reading.  I didn't like the Snowball either...it sounded very much like Lewis.  But like Lewis, Schroeder also does write very well, so I kept reading even though I didn't enjoy the tone of the book.  Cheers!   

[seshnath]

Michael Lewis was one of the speakers at the CFA Conference this year at Orlando. This was my first time listening to him in person - his biases came out in the open while discussing the current economic situation and political solutions.  (I guess, it may be due to the absence of someone to edit the words).  Having said that, I am looking forward to his next book that he plans to write on AIG.

As an end note - did anyone see the "AIG, I quit" letter from one of the AIG-FP employees - I believe it was in International Herald Tribune?  It seems, Lewis had a role to play in publishing it.

- Nathan

[Rabbitisrich]

Agreed with both statements. I, too, will reluctantly and dismissively read his next books.