Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett's Omaha: A Hedge Fund Manager's Dispatches from Inside the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting »

Jeff Matthews founded Ram Partners, LP, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT, in 1994. His distinctive financial blog, Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up, is regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal’s blog roll and has a loyal following among Wall Street analysts, traders, and portfolio managers, as well as investors around the world.

Welcome to the “WOODSTOCK OF CAPITALISM”

Omaha Nebraska, Saturday May 3, 2008 The nation’s largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Credit, has collapsed after 38 years of making home loans—-a victim of its own aggressive lending practices, soaring loan losses, and a credit squeeze that forced it to sell out at a fire-sale price.

Bear Stearns, which survived the Crash of 1929 without a single layoff and ranked among the top investment banks in the United States, virtually disappeared overnight after 85 years on Wall Street. Only an 11th hour rescue by JP Morgan and the U.S. Treasury prevented a world-wide financial meltdown.

And 31,000 people have converged on Omaha to hear what Warren Buffett thinks will happen now.

The “Oracle of Omaha” is in the building.

“After reading Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha, my view of Buffett has been radically changed. Jeff Matthews reveals some of Warren Buffett’s most interesting professional foibles and personal blemishes.”—Douglas A. Kass, Seabreeze Partners Management Inc.

Jeff Matthews founded Ram Partners, LP, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT, in 1994. His distinctive financial blog, Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up, is regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal’s blog roll and has a loyal following among Wall Street analysts, traders, and portfolio managers, as well as investors around the world.

Preface: Pilgrimage to Omaha vii

Part I A Very Rational Place: 2007

Introduction: Wired at Birth 3

1 This is Big 15

2 Why Omaha? 21

3 The Newspaper Generation 35

4 The Oracle of Omaha 43

5 This Motley Group 51

6 The Math Has to Make Sense 59

7 Buffett's Table 63

8 The Time Value of Warren Buffett 67

9 Budding Buffetts: Where to Begin 75

10 The Most Versatile Investor in the World 79

11 An Insider's Information 89

12 "You Don't Want to Let Him Down" 93

13 Intrusion 103

14 Whom Do You Trust? 111

15 Grumpy Old Man? 117

16 Artful Dodging 123

17 One-Half of 1 Percent 127

18 What Now? 133

19 Road Trip 139

20 Buffett's Last Nickel 147

21 "This is a Very Rational Place" 155

Part II Retuin to Omaha: 2008

Introduction: Family Reunion 167

22 Armageddon Avoided 173

23 The 1 Percent 181

24 It's a Beautiful Day 187

25 The Usual Procedure 191

26 In Search of the Oldest Living Manager 197

27 What Would Warren Do? 203

28 A Convulsion That Makes Enron Look Like a Tea Party 209

29 Crying Wolf 217

30 A Particularly Foolish Mess 223

31 Like Breathing 227

32 Secrets in Plain Sight 233

33 Buffett's Radar 239

34 A Family Affair 245

35 The Berkshire Flea Market 251

36 Decline and Fall of The Sainted Seven 257

37 The "Yes" Won't Change 265

38 Yesterday I Died 271

39 His Fondest Hope 277

Coda: Beyond Buffett 283

Notes 287

Index 293

Acknowledgments 297