Top Ten Warren Buffett Watch Posts of 2008
By: Alex Crippen | Executive Producer
Along with predictions, the approach of a new year also compels us journalist-types to compile Top 10 lists.
This year, Warren Buffett Watch presents the ten most popular posts from 2008, as measured by your clicks.
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#10. Short Seller Wins Bet Against Warren Buffett(October 23)
Short seller Douglas Kass has won his relatively short-term bet against Warren Buffett. Given Buffett's track record as the world's greatest investor, he doesn't lose very often.
#9. Warren Buffett's Call to Buy Stocks Endorsed By Usually Pessimistic Investor Doug Kass(October 20)
Warren Buffett's high-profile call to buy U.S. stocks may have its skeptics, but the often-pessimistic Doug Kass isn't among them. He shares Buffett's longer-term optimism, and notes that Buffett has made only two similar bullish predictions in the past and was proved correct both times. Earlier this year, Kass generated some headlines by publicly betting that Berkshire Hathaway's stock would fall, citing Buffett's "investment-style drift" and "bombs" among Berkshire's stock holdings. In March, he listed "11 Reasons to Short Berkshire." The stock is down almost 13 percent year-to-date.
#8. Warren Buffett: People Thought "I Was Doing Some Sort of Ponzi Scheme" (December 16)
"There were people in Omaha who thought what I was doing was some sort of Ponzi scheme." That's Warren Buffett talking about his early days as a money manager in the late 1950s, as quoted by Alice Schroeder in her recent Buffett biography The Snowball. It wasn't as crazy a thought back then as it might seem now.
#7. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Sharply Boosts ConocoPhillips Stake(November 14)
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sharply increased its stake in ConocoPhillips this spring and summer, accumulating a total of 84 million shares as of the end of the third quarter on September 30, according to Berkshire's just-released quarterly portfolio filing with the SEC.
#6. Warren Buffett: I Haven't Seen As Much Economic Fear In My Adult Lifetime - Charlie Rose Interview(October 1)
In an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, Warren Buffett says, "In my adult lifetime I don't think I've ever seen people as fearful, economically, as they are now... The economy is going to be getting worse for a while."
