Warren Buffett shows his true face

The bankruptcy of Sears excites the minds. This week, decides whether the venerable Department store is dismembered or a new Dodge of the Hedge-Fund Manager Eddie Lampert for the time being, remains alive. For insolvency proceedings, a celebrity is likely to be of interest to enter the Investor, which remains rather in the Background: Warren Buffett is involved as a lender and shareholder, substantially in the real estate company Seritage Growth Properties, at the Sears in 2015, a large part of the property has been divided. De facto head of the group, Lampert, rich in tradition brought to purchase the house in order to valuable Assets.

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That Buffett has such a Deal to let them in, may be surprising. Finally, the chief of Berkshire Hathaway is as a stock market guru with a big fatherly charm that abhors the short-sighted greed on Wallstreet. But is this picture of him really? Or is it only from ruthless profit driven thinking, like so many others in his profession, too, is a good 80-billion-Dollar third-richest person in the world?

understand The Drama of Dempster

the "Oracle of Omaha", one must look to the history: at the beginning of the sixties, Buffett placed his first big bet, he buys the crisis-ridden agricultural equipment manufacturers Dempster Mill to a spot price. Financially, the transaction turns out to be a success. The restructuring of the group is associated with a mass layoff, what Buffett enters in his native Nebraska sharp criticism. "He was shocked," writes his biographer, Alice Schroeder. "He had not reckoned with the anger and the hatred against his Person."

The Drama of Dempster Buffett characterizes the lifetime. In the case of investments, he delegated the operational responsibility on others, and is engaged from a safe distance with his Investments. Until today the seat of Berkshire in Omaha, suggests that the main because nothing on one of the largest corporations in America. In the nondescript office building at 3555 Farnam Street is much more than a dozen employees are hardly working.

A key role in the Berkshire group is the insurance division. Appealing Buffett on the insurance business, especially what he calls "Float": the continuous stream of Premiums, and uses it for Investments. Over the years, he has bought a collection of over eighty companies: the rail group, BNSF, and the chemical company, Lubrizol, the confectionery manufacturer, the lake and the power supply BHE to around 190 billion dollars in equity investments.

The Berkshire stock portfolio

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To this Empire would have come Buffett never if he was just a good-hearted Investor. Although the 88-Year-old presented as a benevolent capitalist, favors it companies from industries in which free competition is hardly. He always stresses that he put on easy-to-understand business. In fact, his transactions, however, are not often highly complex. The shows about his commitment to the merger of Kraft and Heinz, where he tightened it with the Brazilian Private Equity firm 3G Capital. The mega-merger has coincided with a wave of layoffs and piled upon the new company a mountain of debt.

Not to Buffett's friendly Image fit in various scandals. Among the largest of the Manipulation of the bond market by wall street Bank Salomon Brothers in the nineties, where he had to as a core shareholder to temporarily take the helm. As a shareholder of the credit auditor, Moody's he was responsible for in the aftermath of the financial crisis before the US Congress. A few years later, there was an insider affair, the purchase of Lubrizol, and his aide David Sokol, had to surrender. Not In good light Buffett even recently, as the überaggressiven business practices of its "favorite Bank" Wells Fargo, were made public.

helper with a cool calculus

Buffett sold himself as a Savior in times of Need. To come and help, but he never without calculus. In Switzerland, for example, he left the capital grant to the reinsurer to Swiss Re in the crisis is extremely expensive to pay. He also tried to obtain a convenient a well-known participation in the company. The more miss, it fell to him, as Swiss Re, the loan is prematurely repaid. "He was upset afterwards for years to come," said Chairman of the Board Walter Kielholz later to the NZZ. Is aware of the strategy, however, in the case of Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, where Berkshire is now one of the largest shareholders.

it is Clear that What relates to the long-term Performance, can compete well, as no-one with Buffett, beat the shares of Berkshire to the market but in order to lengths. Even the "way of Nebraska" is not immune to mistakes but. A current example is the commitment in IBM, he has finished in may. Little happy with his Timing in the case of Apple seems to also. With almost 60 billion dollars to the iPhone manufacturer accounted for at the end of September, by far the largest Position in the Berkshire equity portfolio. Today, the titles are almost 20 billion dollars of less value. Even if Buffett's exceptional success as an Investor, it is undisputed, that does not mean, therefore, that he is a Saint.

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(financial and economic)

Created: 17.01.2019, 15:53 PM