Tuesday, April 29, 2008

I can't wait to see the interview with his sister.

I've fallen into the habit lately of watching Nightly Business Report on PBS. Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting is coming up, and NBR is running a series on the children of Warren Buffett. Tonight, the first night of the series, was about Howard Buffett, whom Warren has chosen to be his successor, and who splits his time between a farm in Central Illinois and running a foundation.

Unfortunately, NBR doesn't appear to be posting the videos of the interviews online. Howard seemed to me to be down-to-earth, kind, and above all, honest. It was fascinating to hear his take on his father. Warren was, Howard said, "always thrifty" and gave Howard an allowance of about a quarter, in return for cleaning the gutters and taking out the trash.

When Susie Gharib (who graduated from CWRU!) asked how it was that money, which usually tears a family apart, hadn't done so to the Buffetts.

"I would never sue my sister," he said. "Because she would win."

I was most interested to learn that money was not what drives Warren Buffett. Instead, his middle-child said, it is the challenge of finding and doing good deals and working with good people. And, Howard said, Warren believes that the most important thing is to be honest with people and to treat people fairly.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Two things

1. Turns out I can log in from my work compuater. Hurrah.

2. WTF is this? Jacobs Field is not called Jacobs Field anymore!?!!? It is now called Progressive Field. Blah. That is just wrong.