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2008 was Berkshire Hathaway’s worst year ever, according to its annual letter to shareholders. Has the Buff lost his touch? Probably not–Berkshire Hathaway was just doing what it always does, but in a horrible economy. The Wall Street Journal reports: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported Saturday morning that 2008 was the legendary investor’s worst […]
Nobody is immune from the bad market. The Wall Street Journal reports the severity with with T. Boone Pickens, energy investor par excellence, was hit: In the latest sign of how the financial crisis and steep drop in commodity prices since July have blindsided some of the most prominent investors, energy crusader T. Boone Pickens […]
From the Financial Times: Fears that the US Treasury’s bail-out plan could fail provided support for the gold market, which saw holdings by the main gold exchange traded funds rise to record levels as investors sought a safe haven from the turmoil in financial markets. On Thursday, the US government was forced to “temporarily” suspend […]
This is a blog post by Drea Knufken. Financial crises are consistent in one way, and one way only: They’re far more sexy when your neighbors are wearing them. When you suffer your own, runaway inflation becomes infuriating rather than exotic, and bogus bank scams go from intriguing to fist-clenching. It’s all fine and well […]
So far, it looks like the House listened to dismayed taxpayers, and isn’t allowing the Treasury’s $700 billion bailout plan to pass without quite a bit of scrutiny. For a summary of Paulson’s and Congress’ bailout plans, see this AP article. From the New York Times: Asserting that the plan would allow Mr. Paulson to […]
Last week, there was still a Wall Street. This week, there are a bunch of holding companies. From the Wall Street Journal: The Federal Reserve, in an attempt to prevent the crisis on Wall Street from infecting its two premier institutions, took the extraordinary measure on Sunday night of agreeing to convert investment banks Morgan […]
Calling today Black Monday would be somewhat unoriginal. The day, which promises to be a pivotal one in US economic history, has only just begun. So far, it’s looking like a Funeral Monday, with the fates of three major Wall Street players–Lehman Bros. (bankrupt), Merrill Lynch (bought by Bank of America), and insurance company AIG […]
Over the years, Warren Buffett has recommended many books in a variety of venues about a variety of subjects. Continuing our ongoing series of books recommended by Buffett (our last entry in this series was on Buffett’s political book recommendations) here we highlight ten books that Buffett has recommended on investing. Take on the […]
Does accounting deserve more respect? Historians have long suggested that there is a relationship between accounting advances and economic development. Economic historian Werner Sombart, for example, theorized back in the Thirties that the invention of double-entry bookkeeping wasn't an innovation that arose during the Renaissance, but the innovation that actually enabled it to take off. […]
The AICPA has an article about why accounting firms should blog, and it includes a nice list of existing accounting blogs.
