Investing Legends

Warren Buffett's 1980 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter introduces one of his most enduring ideas: "look-through earnings," his argument that a company's true value includes the retained profits of businesses it partly owns, even when accounting rules don't show them. He revisits his warning on inflation as an "investor's misery index" that quietly erodes real returns, and gives a deep, admiring look at GEICO, comparing its recovery to American Express's after the salad oil scandal. He also warns of a brewing crisis in the insurance industry over hidden bond losses, details the spin-off of the Illinois National Bank, and closes with a heartfelt tribute to longtime banker Gene Abegg. Essential listening for fans of Warren Buffett, value investing, and Berkshire Hathaway's history.

Howard Marks in conversation about market cycles, investor psychology, and where the current market sits on the swing from optimism to fear. He works through three of his memos, explaining why cognitive dissonance lets markets ignore bad news until a critical mass of it arrives, why waiting for the bottom is the wrong question, and how Oaktree came to invest four hundred and fifty million dollars a week in the weeks after Lehman failed. He also revisits the growth versus value divide he now thinks is a false one, argues that selling should be treated as a decision to un-buy, and uses Amazon and the Nifty Fifty to show how much money is lost by getting off a good idea too soon. The conversation closes with the tennis analogy behind his whole philosophy, and why avoiding losers works in credit but not everywhere.Recorded in april 2026.

Warren Buffett's 1979 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, one of his most philosophical. He introduces the "investor's misery index" how inflation and taxes can erode real returns even when a business is thriving and confesses a rare mistake, the Waumbec Mills textile acquisition, with the memorable lesson that "turnarounds seldom turn." He makes a detailed case against long-term bonds during high inflation, closing with "neither a short-term borrower nor a long-term lender be," and lays out his now-famous philosophy on shareholder communication, using Phil Fisher's restaurant analogy to explain why Berkshire seeks long-term owners over short-term traders. A rich listen for anyone into Warren Buffett, value investing, inflation, and Berkshire Hathaway's history.

Stanley Druckenmiller sits down for a wide-ranging conversation about how he actually trades: position sizing, technical analysis, and the risk management instincts he built over three decades. He covers the trade that broke the Bank of England, the losses that nearly ended his career, and why he thinks diversification is overrated. Along the way, he traces his path from a Pittsburgh bank training program to running Soros's Quantum Fund, explains how 272 nightly charts shape every decision he makes, and describes the two years he spent whipsawed by the tech bubble before a four-month sabbatical reset his head. He talks candidly about the rupiah position that cost him over a billion dollars, why he has never used a stop loss, and why he plays bigger when he is winning rather than booking the year. The conversation closes with his read on the aftermath of the financial crisis, his case for gold, and the sovereign debt reckoning he believed was coming.The interview is from 2009.

Buffett opens with a thought experiment for the students. If you could buy ten percent of one classmate's lifetime earnings, who would you pick? Not the one with the best grades, he argues, but the one whose character you'd bet on. That leads into the three qualities he hires for: intelligence, energy, and integrity, and why the third makes the other two dangerous when it's missing.The Q&A runs wide. He explains the circle of competence using the two thousand American car companies that didn't survive, and the airplane makers whose combined earnings since Kitty Hawk added up to less than nothing. He defines intrinsic value as simply the cash a business will hand you between now and judgment day, discounted properly, and traces the idea back to Aesop.He's candid about his failures: buying Berkshire Hathaway itself, the cigar butt years, the US Air preferred, and the filling station stake he calculates has cost him billions in foregone compounding. But the costliest mistakes, he insists, never show up in any accounting. They're the opportunities he understood and sat on anyway.Also covered: why the Dow went nowhere for seventeen years while the economy kept improving, why the Fed's brake works better than its gas pedal, how he instructs his trustees to give the money away, and the story of Rose Blumkin, who walked out of Russia in 1921, couldn't read or write, and built the largest home furnishings store in the world.

Warren Buffett's 1978 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, the first written after merging with Diversified Retailing Company. He explains why return on equity, not earnings per share, is the real measure of a good year, and lays out his case for buying small pieces of great businesses through the stock market, highlighted by a deep dive into SAFECO Corporation and his argument for "passive participation in excellent management." He also covers the strong insurance underwriting results led by National Indemnity, the struggling textile operation, the Illinois National Bank, and Associated Retail Stores under Ben Rosner. A must-listen for fans of Warren Buffett, value investing, and Berkshire Hathaway's early history.

Warren Buffett's 1977 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, the first of his famous annual letters, read in full. In it, Buffett explains why return on equity, not earnings per share, is the real measure of a company's performance, and lays out his timeless four-part test for buying a stock: a business you understand, with strong long-term prospects, run by honest and able people, at an attractive price. He walks through Berkshire's booming insurance operation, the struggling textile mills, the Illinois National Bank, and the growth of See's Candies under Blue Chip Stamps. A foundational listen for anyone interested in Warren Buffett, value investing, Berkshire Hathaway history, and long-term business thinking.