Daily Speculations The Web Site of Victor Niederhoffer and Laurel Kenner

01/19/06
Stefan Jovanovich on Morgan and Buffett

Whatever J.P. Morgan, Sr.'s faults, he was never "doddering" and the response to his remarks about "character" before the Zagora committee were anything but approving. No one believed him. Morgan's own opinions about Jews were equally puzzling to his contemporaries on Wall Street. In an age where Gentiles' attitudes ranged from wariness at best to outright paranoia, Morgan, Sr. had no fear of Jews - either privately or in business. Many of his art dealers and "scouts" were Jews, and there is no record of his having ever said anything anti-Semitic. His firm did not hire Jews, but they also did not hire Baptists or Catholics. As for the Ivy League, Morgan, Sr. was a skeptic, not a believer. He thought Harvard had made his son into something of a prig, and Yale was not one of his charities. (I have to check, but I do not think that the college is mentioned in his will.)

The Sage of Omaha is a genius. So was Colonel Parker. Buffett knows that Berkshire's valuation is not sustainable, if measured by "mere" financial criteria, so he is busily creating a legacy that makes his company into the ultimate "social responsibility" investment. Selling the Berkshire Hathaway stock will become as unthinkable as doubting the wisdom of the Kyoto Protocol (or whatever its successor will be in virtuous certainties about our sinful world). If you want to become the Saint of Omaha, that is the only way to go; and that is the road that the Buffett carnival show has been traveling for the past decade. Reading from Graham and Dodd, the "bible" of investing, is part of the act. It is truly a masterful performance.