Buffett's Principles

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/buffett-principles

From a Wall Street Journal article on Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett posing for weird photos with visiting students that he requires to be at least one-third female: "As for the principles that made him the world's most famous investor, he reminds students to 'stay away from borrowed money....'"

Berkshire has $60 billion in debt, according to Yahoo! Finance, while among Berkshire's largest stock investments, American Express has $63 billion in debt and Coca-Cola has $29 billion in debt.

I'm not saying those amounts are excessive. Maybe Mr. Buffett told the students more about borrowed money that the Journal article did not convey. Maybe he was talking about personal finance as opposed to corporate finance. But as a distillation of the principles that made Mr. Buffett the world's most famous investor, "stay away from borrowed money" doesn't seem to me as accurately capturing the story.

by Editor  |  Feb 3, 2012 at 6:33 am Related Topics:  Warren Buffett receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list