The New York Stock Exchange asked Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to make a bid for the company as an alternative to interest from the Intercontinental Exchange.

For the first time in the five-year history of his "Million-Dollar Bet" against the "experts" of Wall Street, Warren Buffett is now in the lead.

Back in 2008, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman made a 10-year wager with Protege partner Ted Seides. Buffett put his money on a low-cost S&P stock index fund from Vanguard. Seides backed five funds of hedge funds.

The strategy with the best return at the end of 2017, including the costs associated with the funds, will be the winner, with a guaranteed $1 million going to either Buffett's designated charity (Girls Inc of Omaha) or Seides' (Absolute Returns for Kids.)

Fortune's Carol Loomis reports today that Buffett's chosen fund is up 8.69 percent, easily ahead of the hedge funds picked by Protege with their 0.13 percent average increase.

It's vindication, at least so far, of Buffett's long-held argument that over a number of years, the "experts" aren't able to outperform the overall stock market. It's the basis of his belief the fees "helpers" charge investors usually aren't justified.

Both strategies suffered big losses in 2008, the first year of the challenge, and Loomis notes it took until now for both sides to get into the black.

In arguments on a web site recording the wager, Protege contends that hedge funds are trying to "generate positive returns over time regardless of the market environment," not just beat the market. Even so, through a cycle, "top hedge fund managers have surpassed market returns net of all fees, while assuming less risk as well."

Protege believes that since there's a big difference between the returns of the top hedge funds and the average ones, "funds of funds with the ability to sort the wheat from the chaff will earn returns that amply compensate for the extra layer of fees their clients pay."

The benchmark S&P 500 stock index had a good year in 2012, but shares of Berkshire Hathaway did even better.

Berkshire's Class A shares finished a $134,060, an increase of 16.8 percent from 2011's close. That's the highest year-end finish for Berkshire and just below the 4-year intraday high of $136,345 set on October 18.

The S&P ended the year with a 13.4 percent gain, excluding dividends.

Despite the intense political fighting over just the "fiscal cliff," Warren Buffett is optimistic the nation's overall debt problem will eventually be fixed.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4's "Today" program, Buffett said, "In the end, 535 people in Washington will not thwart the wishes of 312 million Americans."

Warren Buffett appears to be interested in bringing his growing Berkshire Hathaway newspaper empire to Allentown, Pennsylvanvia,

The Allentown Morning Call reports that when it asked Buffett if he might buy the newspaper, he replied, "Allentown is our kind of place."

Warren Buffett has responded to critics who said the timing of Berkshire Hathaway's purchase of $1.2 billion of its own stock was designed to save the seller a lot of money in taxes.

That's based on the assumption the seller expects the tax rate on capital gains will be substantially higher next year after the "fiscal cliff" is resolved, so he or she wanted to complete the sale before the end of this year.

In that light, Berkshire's participation in the deal could be seen as contradicting Buffett's high-profile calls for higher tax rates on extremely wealthy Americans who make a lot of their money from investments, and for higher estate taxes.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has bought 9,200 of its Class A shares at a price of $131,000 each, a level just above yesterday's closing price of $130,831. The stock is up less than three percent in early trading today.

Total price of the Berkshire buy: $1.2 billion.

Warren Buffett isn't limiting his call for higher taxes to a minimum rate for very rich Americans who get a large chunk of their income from investments.

He's also one of several dozen wealthy people who have signed a statement calling for a "strong tax on the largest estates." It's been released by a group called "United For a Fair Economy."

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate is claiming up to $1 billion from re-insurer Swiss Re, in a dispute over a life insurance deal they agreed in 2010.

Warren Buffett expects Washington lawmakers will come up with a compromise on the "fiscal cliff," but he's not sure that will happen by the end of the year.

He doesn't, however, think it will take several more months to come up with a fix and it won't be the "end of the world" if a compromise comes shortly after the December 31 deadline.