My latest Bloomberg column. I haven't been commenting on Buffett in the past few months, on the theory that at a certain age, minor foibles get a pass. Once they're something more than minor, it's time to speak up. So while publishing this brings no joy to this particular corner of Mudville, it needed to be said. 

 UPDATE: The "she's got an axe to grind" crew is out in full force. When I wrote this I knew it would cause the same reactions from a certain audience that happen every time. They're entitled to feel that way and vent their feelings and write all the angry comments they want if it makes them feel better.

It does worry me a bit that people think I'm a harsh critic of Buffett. They may not have a realistic basis of comparison. If you read the other things being said about him on the Internet it will give you a better picture of the spectrum of opinion and how drastically it has changed.

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"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof." — John Kenneth Galbraith

"If you want to make enemies, try to change something."  Woodrow Wilson

"Making yesterday last is not a very good business plan." George Coelho

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Today brings the news that superinvestor and Buffett friend Walter Schloss is no longer with us.

I admired Walter for many reasons: his devotion to his family, his investing prowess, and his zest for life. His first wife was ill with serious depression for decades and throughout, he cared for her tirelessly. Meanwhile, he worked in a tiny closet-sized office at Tweedy Brown, and used essentially nothing but pencils, paper, and Value Line to produce some of the best investing results in history. Later his son Edwin joined him in the business, but they never deviated from the style that made him a success, which his friends referred to as mainly buying "buggy-whip manufacturers," moribund companies that were trading for less than their carcasses would be worth.

As for the zest, there is a photo in The Snowball of Walter dancing at his 90th birthday party. He was really cutting the rug, not just doing a pose for the camera, and you can tell how much fun he was having and what a lively person he was from that picture. That night he told me how much he enjoyed still being able to play tennis at his age. He had recently remarried and was fully involved in life.

The first time I ever spoke to Walter was several years earlier, in a phone interview. Warren had mentioned that Walter's political views were a "little more right wing" than Buffett's own. When we got on the phone, Walter immediately wanted let me know he just could not understand how Warren could believe the things he did about taxes. While Warren would always take his calls, Walter had found that if the subject turned to politics they tended to end quickly. So Walter figured that I was a possible vehicle to get his views through to Warren, and he made that very clear. My first interview transcript with Walter ended up consisting about 75% of a message to Warren about his wrong-headedness on taxes. I must say that Warren took it well.

That was my introduction to the dynamic among the insiders in the Buffett Group. Walter was one of the earlier interviews, and as it turned out, only a prelude to a series of people who wanted to use part of their interviews to send the same message. But Walter was more outspoken than most. It seems appropriate that the news of his death would come on President's Day.

The most notable thing I remember about Walter, though, was not his politics; it was his generosity. It was he who helped me really understand what life was like working at Graham-Newman. He also contributed greatly to the portrait of Warren as a young investor. Walter gave me an abundance of information about Ben Graham, and later donated his papers to Columbia University. These are only examples, and I'm sure that many other people have stories of how open-hearted this man was. He will be very much missed.

Here's a good Bloomberg story on his passing.

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 My latest Bloomberg column. Is the game over? It certainly won't be as much fun.

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 I've gotten some questions lately to the effect of where are you & what's up with the blog. There are a couple of reasons I've been laying back. One is that I'm very busy right now, writing the investing book and also, in beta, doing the investing. I would rather spend my time that way and I think many of you would rather that I do that as well.

In terms of when, the book will be done when its finished and there are always surprises in these things so it's best not to give an arbitrary deadline.  As the date gets closer you'll get some heads-up comments.

Another reason I have not written much lately is that there isn't much I want to say about Buffett or Berkshire. At some point, people have accomplished enough in their career that they should get to rest on their laurels, meaning that it isn't appropriate to comment on every little thing they do and say. If anything important happens, I'll write about it -- probably for Bloomberg -- and post the link here. I have a Bloomberg column coming out on another subject shortly that you'll learn about if you subscribe to my feeds, twitter, etc.

From time to time I read something noteworthy enough to pass along. This is an interesting piece from the Templeton Foundation that has implications for investing as well as life in general: The Hodge Hill Prophecy. 

I hope you've enjoyed visiting the blog and I will continue to tune in, but for awhile at least, not as often as in the past couple of years.

Best to you all,

Alice

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 On Bloomberg, my column about how the once-useful term black swan has been trivialized and overused into an excuse for bad planning and lack of foresight. 

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Cool move from Buffett after Wall Street Journal editorial page calls for him to disclose his tax return. Buffett dares Rupert Murdoch, publisher of the Journal, to meet him at Fortune mag with his tax return. If Murdoch shows up, Fortune will publish both his and Buffett's.

Would anyone care to place odds on Murdoch agreeing to publish his tax return?

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In this latest Bloomberg column, I give some views on how the share repurchase fits into Buffett's plans -- which are changing.

UPDATE: Buffett with Betty Liu on Bloomberg TV says Berkshire has begun to buy back stock. Confirms it's undervalued. Has enough cash to continue to make acquisitions while buying back stock.

Also, in yesterday's news, Texas gov. Rick Perry said of Buffett, "Mr. Buffett is a real intelligent individual [sic], but I can promise you he doesn't know what's going on in places where the job creation is at zero because of over-taxation and over-regulation" (without naming where these places might be). Buffett got off lightly; Perry didn't accuse him of treason or say he's running a Ponzi scheme.

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 Today Berkshire Hathaway authorized a share repurchase at 10% over the book value of the stock. This is the first time since the end of the Internet bubble, which was the only other repurchase authorization that Berkshire has made.  At that time, the announcement ran the stock up immediately and no shares were repurchased. The same will probably happen now.

This time, Berkshire has authorized a standing repurchase as long as Berkshire maintains cash/equivalent balances of at least $20 billion, which should support the stock price at 110% of book value. (The press release contains the standard disclaimer that the underlying businesses of Berkshire are worth considerably more than this amount, though any such estimate is necessarily imprecise.)  

It will be interesting to see if Berkshire actually buys back any stock (I'm betting that if so, it will be not a significant amount).  

The main twist that occurs to me is that this announcement opens up interesting possibilities for acquisitions. If the stock market tanks, Berkshire's book value would be affected but its stock might still remain a good acquisition currency because of the repurchase "floor" on the stock. (Berkshire's book value is more than its investment portfolio.) This would let Buffett make deals that would otherwise be out of reach. 

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 Why Obama should use Buffett's reputation for more than promoting a tax on the rich. My op-ed, just published.

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 Story from the FT. I give some information. Tomorrow in WaPo I have an op-ed about how Obama should deploy Buffett to make larger points.

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