Alice Schroeder’s The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life might well be one of the most important books you will ever read -- particularly in a period when the world's various economies appear to be entering freefall. This arm-straining (at nearly a thousand pages) but utterly fascinating book has already -- against all the odds -- achieved an astonishing level of success, given its initially daunting appearance. But it will only take a chapter or so for most readers to see just why this book is enjoying such an unprecedented level of acclaim.

The subject is the life and career of one of the most revered men in the western hemisphere, Warren Buffett (an advisor to new US President Barack Obama) – despite the fact that his name may not be known to most of the general public. Buffett’s story is one that currently has resonances for all of us: a remarkable financial success story. The name of this investor from Omaha is spoken of with admiration by all who know him, despite the fact that he has never written a book on his career or the secrets of his business success. However, he has been persuaded to allow Alice Schroeder to spend time with him and those with whom he works to investigate his business triumphs, his opinions, his mistakes (Buffett is rather winning in admitting to several of the latter – how common is that in his profession?) -- and what emerges is a totally comprehensive biography of the man known throughout the world as ‘The Oracle of Omaha’.

What is most revealing about the picture of the man that emerges from these pages (and Schroeder had access not just to her subject and his business associates but also his wife, children and friends) is that we meet a man of intellect – of course – but also of humanity and understanding, with a philosphy and worldview that is both judicious and principled. In an era in which those in Buffet’s profession are more prone to excoriation than praise, the man we encounter here has a sane and clear-eyed philosophy of life and an attitude to business success that is generously instructive -- and inspiring. --Barry Forshaw

To a great extent, his life has been business...and business has been his life, 17 Nov 2008

I recently re-read Roger Lowenstein's biography, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (first published in 1995 and now re-issued with a new Afterword), and then read this more recent one by Alice Schroeder. Both are first-rate. Which to select if reading only one? That depends on how much you wish to know about Buffett's personal life, including his relations with various family members, and how curious you are about his personal hang-ups, peculiarities, eccentricities, fetishes, etc. If you can do without any of that, Roger Lowenstein's biography is the one to read. I also highly recommend the recently published Second Edition of The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, with content selected, arranged, and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham.

The heft of Schroeder's biography may discourage some people from obtaining a copy. To them I presume to suggest that they not be deterred by that factor. Schroeder has a lively, often entertaining writing style that drives the narrative through just about every period and (yes) interlude of Warren Buffett's life and career thus far. There is much more information provided than most readers either need or desire. However, she had unprecedented access not only to Buffett but to just about everyone else with whom he is (or once was) associated as well as to previously inaccessible research resources. It is possible but highly unlikely that anyone else will write a more comprehensive biography than Schroeder has, at least for the next several years, if not decades. Also, her opinion of Buffett seems to me to be balanced and circumspect. No doubt he wishes that certain details about his life and career were not included. However, there has been no indication from him or those authorized to represent him that any of the material in this biography (however unflattering) is either inaccurate or unfair. Both halos and warts are included.

Others have shared their reasons for holding this book in high regard. Here are two of mine. First, although I had already read various Buffett's chairman's letters that first appeared in a series of Berkshire Hathaway's annual reports, I did not understand (nor could I have understood) the context for observations he shared, especially his comments about especially important 12-month periods throughout BRK's history. Schroeder provides the context or frame-of-reference I needed but previously lacked. For example, whereas in previous letters, Buffett merely offered brief updates on how each BRK company was doing, in 1978 he began to share his thoughts about major business topics such as performance measurement for management and why short-term earnings were a poor criterion for investment decisions. With the help of Carol Loomis, especially since 1977, his chairman's letters "had grown more personal and entertaining by the year; they amounted to crash courses in business, written in clear language that ranged from biblical quotations to references to Alice in Wonderland, and princesses kissing toads." As Schroeder explains, these gradual but significant changes of subject and tone reflect changes in Buffett's personal life as he became more reflective about business principles and more appreciative of personal relationships. His children were growing up and departing the "nest" in Omaha. His wife Susie decided to relocate to San Francisco. Meanwhile, his personal net worth continued to increase substantially. His national and then international recognition also increased. The "Oracle of Omaha" had finally become sufficiently confident of himself to reveal to others "a sense of him as a man."

I also appreciate how carefully Schroeder develops several separate but related themes that help her reader to manage the wealth of information she provides. The biography's title suggests one of these themes: the "snowball" effect that compounded interest can have. From childhood when he began to sell packs of gum (but not single sticks) and bottles of soda, and a money changer was his favorite toy, Buffett was fascinated by the way that numbers "exploded as they grew at a constant rate over time was how a small sum could be turned into a fortune. He could picture the numbers compounding as vividly as the way a snowball grew when he rolled it across the lawn. Warren began to think about it a different way. Compounding married the present to the future. If a dollar today was going to be worth ten some years from now, then in his mind the two were the same." Early in life, Buffett avoided making any purchases unless they were almost certain to generate compound interest. This theme is central to understanding Buffett's investment principles and to his own leadership of BRK. It also helps to explain why he could become physically ill when an investment cost others the funds they had entrusted to his care. Other themes include his determination to simplify his life to the extent he could (e.g. eating hamburgers and wearing threadbare sweaters, minimizing participation in family activities) so that he could concentrate almost entirely on business matters; his dependence on a series of women, beginning with his mother and two sisters (especially Doris) that continued with his first wife Susie (and their daughter "Susie Jr.") and then companion Astrid Menks whom he married in 2006; and his passion for helping others to understand the business principles to which he has been committed since childhood.

There is one other theme of special interest and importance to me: over the years, how Buffett has interacted with various associates, notably with Jerome Newman and Benjamin Graham, Sandy Gottesman, Charlie Munger, Bill Ruane, Katherine Graham, and Bill Gates. By all accounts, Buffett is a superb business associate once he agrees to become involved. He cares deeply about each relationship, does whatever may be necessary to protect and defend the best interests of his associates, and is extraordinarily generous with material rewards as well as recognition. Here is an especially revealing excerpt from Cunningham's Introduction to The Essays of Warren Buffett: "The CEOs at Berkshire's operating companies enjoy a unique position in corporate America. They are given a simple set of commands: to run the business as if (1) they are its sole owner, (2) it is the only asset they hold, and (3) they can never sell or merge it for one hundred years." These three "commands" are wholly consistent with what Lawrence explains earlier in the same Introduction: "The central theme uniting Buffett's lucid essays is that the principles of fundamental business analysis, first formulated by his teachers Ben Graham and David Dodd, should guide investment practice. Linked to that theme are management principles that define the proper role of corporate managers as the stewards of investment capital and the proper role of shareholders as the suppliers and owners of capital. Radiating from these main themes are practical and sensible lessons on the entire range of important business issues, from accounting to mergers to valuation." Those who shared Buffett's same core values of honesty and integrity, and who are also committed to the same basic principles, cherish their relationship with him.

To me, Alice Schroeder's rigorous and eloquent analysis of this theme of mutually productive and beneficial collaboration is her single greatest achievement among many in this definitive biography of one of the most important and yet least understood business leaders in recent years. Bravo!

No silver bullet, 16 Nov 2008
Understanding Buffett has become a modern Holy Grail, the pot of gold at the end of a seventy eight year rainbow. How does he do it? How can ordinary people even come close? Having met him first in 2001, Alice Schroeder was first allowed in to the inner sanctum, then granted unfettered access to the man himself "You'll do a better job than I would, Alice. I'm glad you're writing this book, not me". He adds "Whenever my version is different from somebody else's, use the less flattering version".

Five years, 960 pages, 62 chapters, 90 pages of notes, 32 pages of photos, 23 pages of index later, Schroeder has brought us The Snowball, Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Berkshire Hathaway put on over $50 billion of market capitalisation whilst she was writing it. That's over $50 million for each page. No wonder Buffett was happy to entrust the book to Schroeder. Writing books doesn't usually add value that fast.

Schroeder demonstrates that, after all this detailed research, much from the man himself and other primary sources, there is no silver bullet. This may disappoint critiques of other works on Buffett who seemed to be seeking one and were rather hoping that the official biography would, at last, provide it. Rather, what emerges is a combination of old fashioned focus, discipline, common sense, the ability to get with people, to push them just beyond their comfort zone but keep them onside, to drive hard bargains but still remain popular, to calculate business risks and probabilities with consummate ease, accuracy and success, and to continue to seek great businesses at affordable prices. A complex approach from a deeply complex, old-fashioned yet fully at ease in the moment, extremely well-connected and quite remarkable man who has defied the odds and, in the process, conclusively disproved and outlived the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.

Having read The Snowball, the Shareholder Letters and a number of other books on Buffett, the author of this review is still left wondering how he really managed it. There is plenty of inspiration in The Snowball for would-be investors. Many mistakes are also profiled - and the lessons to be learned from them. The book was worth the wait, but don't expect it to reveal all the answers. Otherwise we would all be billionaires.


Remarkably detailed biography of Buffett, 14 Nov 2008
Warren Buffett is "everyman" as multibillionaire. Despite his vast wealth, he has always eschewed ostentation. He pays himself about $100,000 annually, which in today's U.S. economy places him in the upper-middle-class. He lives in the same simple Omaha, Nebraska, house that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He prefers an old gray suit to expensive London tailoring. In Buffett's early days, when he was only a multimillionaire and not a multibillionaire, he walked around with holes in the soles of his shoes. To Buffett, wardrobe doesn't matter; what matters is making money. He is better at this pursuit than anyone else in the world. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked him as the globe's richest man, with a net worth of $62.3 billion. Author Alice Schroeder does a masterful job of chronicling Buffett's improbable, inspiring life. As a former superstar research analyst, Schroeder uses her expert knowledge of finance and commerce to detail Buffett's investment philosophy and business activities. getAbstract praises Schroeder's remarkable skills as a researcher and writer. Her book is packed with fascinating details and trenchant observations about the "Oracle of Omaha." One of the best business biographies available, this book shows how the world's greatest investor amassed the world's greatest fortune, while staying true to his essential self.

WOW, 12 Nov 2008
Was completely blown away by this book. I was always going to be interested in the business side of this book, but it was the personal side that really suprised me. A really well written piece. A truly amazing story about a life well spent!!

best insight into buffetts life so far, 18 Oct 2008
This is the best insight into the sages life that you will probably ever get. I think i have read every book written about buffett so far. This one tells you more about what makes up this truely amazing value investor.

Its a long read but worth every bit. I think alice schroeder has done an excellent job.

To a great extent, his life has been business...and business has been his life, 17 Nov 2008

I recently re-read Roger Lowenstein's biography, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (first published in 1995 and now re-issued with a new Afterword), and then read this more recent one by Alice Schroeder. Both are first-rate. Which to select if reading only one? That depends on how much you wish to know about Buffett's personal life, including his relations with various family members, and how curious you are about his personal hang-ups, peculiarities, eccentricities, fetishes, etc. If you can do without any of that, Roger Lowenstein's biography is the one to read. I also highly recommend the recently published Second Edition of The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, with content selected, arranged, and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham.

The heft of Schroeder's biography may discourage some people from obtaining a copy. To them I presume to suggest that they not be deterred by that factor. Schroeder has a lively, often entertaining writing style that drives the narrative through just about every period and (yes) interlude of Warren Buffett's life and career thus far. There is much more information provided than most readers either need or desire. However, she had unprecedented access not only to Buffett but to just about everyone else with whom he is (or once was) associated as well as to previously inaccessible research resources. It is possible but highly unlikely that anyone else will write a more comprehensive biography than Schroeder has, at least for the next several years, if not decades. Also, her opinion of Buffett seems to me to be balanced and circumspect. No doubt he wishes that certain details about his life and career were not included. However, there has been no indication from him or those authorized to represent him that any of the material in this biography (however unflattering) is either inaccurate or unfair. Both halos and warts are included.

Others have shared their reasons for holding this book in high regard. Here are two of mine. First, although I had already read various Buffett's chairman's letters that first appeared in a series of Berkshire Hathaway's annual reports, I did not understand (nor could I have understood) the context for observations he shared, especially his comments about especially important 12-month periods throughout BRK's history. Schroeder provides the context or frame-of-reference I needed but previously lacked. For example, whereas in previous letters, Buffett merely offered brief updates on how each BRK company was doing, in 1978 he began to share his thoughts about major business topics such as performance measurement for management and why short-term earnings were a poor criterion for investment decisions. With the help of Carol Loomis, especially since 1977, his chairman's letters "had grown more personal and entertaining by the year; they amounted to crash courses in business, written in clear language that ranged from biblical quotations to references to Alice in Wonderland, and princesses kissing toads." As Schroeder explains, these gradual but significant changes of subject and tone reflect changes in Buffett's personal life as he became more reflective about business principles and more appreciative of personal relationships. His children were growing up and departing the "nest" in Omaha. His wife Susie decided to relocate to San Francisco. Meanwhile, his personal net worth continued to increase substantially. His national and then international recognition also increased. The "Oracle of Omaha" had finally become sufficiently confident of himself to reveal to others "a sense of him as a man."

I also appreciate how carefully Schroeder develops several separate but related themes that help her reader to manage the wealth of information she provides. The biography's title suggests one of these themes: the "snowball" effect that compounded interest can have. From childhood when he began to sell packs of gum (but not single sticks) and bottles of soda, and a money changer was his favorite toy, Buffett was fascinated by the way that numbers "exploded as they grew at a constant rate over time was how a small sum could be turned into a fortune. He could picture the numbers compounding as vividly as the way a snowball grew when he rolled it across the lawn. Warren began to think about it a different way. Compounding married the present to the future. If a dollar today was going to be worth ten some years from now, then in his mind the two were the same." Early in life, Buffett avoided making any purchases unless they were almost certain to generate compound interest. This theme is central to understanding Buffett's investment principles and to his own leadership of BRK. It also helps to explain why he could become physically ill when an investment cost others the funds they had entrusted to his care. Other themes include his determination to simplify his life to the extent he could (e.g. eating hamburgers and wearing threadbare sweaters, minimizing participation in family activities) so that he could concentrate almost entirely on business matters; his dependence on a series of women, beginning with his mother and two sisters (especially Doris) that continued with his first wife Susie (and their daughter "Susie Jr.") and then companion Astrid Menks whom he married in 2006; and his passion for helping others to understand the business principles to which he has been committed since childhood.

There is one other theme of special interest and importance to me: over the years, how Buffett has interacted with various associates, notably with Jerome Newman and Benjamin Graham, Sandy Gottesman, Charlie Munger, Bill Ruane, Katherine Graham, and Bill Gates. By all accounts, Buffett is a superb business associate once he agrees to become involved. He cares deeply about each relationship, does whatever may be necessary to protect and defend the best interests of his associates, and is extraordinarily generous with material rewards as well as recognition. Here is an especially revealing excerpt from Cunningham's Introduction to The Essays of Warren Buffett: "The CEOs at Berkshire's operating companies enjoy a unique position in corporate America. They are given a simple set of commands: to run the business as if (1) they are its sole owner, (2) it is the only asset they hold, and (3) they can never sell or merge it for one hundred years." These three "commands" are wholly consistent with what Lawrence explains earlier in the same Introduction: "The central theme uniting Buffett's lucid essays is that the principles of fundamental business analysis, first formulated by his teachers Ben Graham and David Dodd, should guide investment practice. Linked to that theme are management principles that define the proper role of corporate managers as the stewards of investment capital and the proper role of shareholders as the suppliers and owners of capital. Radiating from these main themes are practical and sensible lessons on the entire range of important business issues, from accounting to mergers to valuation." Those who shared Buffett's same core values of honesty and integrity, and who are also committed to the same basic principles, cherish their relationship with him.

To me, Alice Schroeder's rigorous and eloquent analysis of this theme of mutually productive and beneficial collaboration is her single greatest achievement among many in this definitive biography of one of the most important and yet least understood business leaders in recent years. Bravo!

No silver bullet, 16 Nov 2008
Understanding Buffett has become a modern Holy Grail, the pot of gold at the end of a seventy eight year rainbow. How does he do it? How can ordinary people even come close? Having met him first in 2001, Alice Schroeder was first allowed in to the inner sanctum, then granted unfettered access to the man himself "You'll do a better job than I would, Alice. I'm glad you're writing this book, not me". He adds "Whenever my version is different from somebody else's, use the less flattering version".

Five years, 960 pages, 62 chapters, 90 pages of notes, 32 pages of photos, 23 pages of index later, Schroeder has brought us The Snowball, Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Berkshire Hathaway put on over $50 billion of market capitalisation whilst she was writing it. That's over $50 million for each page. No wonder Buffett was happy to entrust the book to Schroeder. Writing books doesn't usually add value that fast.

Schroeder demonstrates that, after all this detailed research, much from the man himself and other primary sources, there is no silver bullet. This may disappoint critiques of other works on Buffett who seemed to be seeking one and were rather hoping that the official biography would, at last, provide it. Rather, what emerges is a combination of old fashioned focus, discipline, common sense, the ability to get with people, to push them just beyond their comfort zone but keep them onside, to drive hard bargains but still remain popular, to calculate business risks and probabilities with consummate ease, accuracy and success, and to continue to seek great businesses at affordable prices. A complex approach from a deeply complex, old-fashioned yet fully at ease in the moment, extremely well-connected and quite remarkable man who has defied the odds and, in the process, conclusively disproved and outlived the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.

Having read The Snowball, the Shareholder Letters and a number of other books on Buffett, the author of this review is still left wondering how he really managed it. There is plenty of inspiration in The Snowball for would-be investors. Many mistakes are also profiled - and the lessons to be learned from them. The book was worth the wait, but don't expect it to reveal all the answers. Otherwise we would all be billionaires.


Remarkably detailed biography of Buffett, 14 Nov 2008
Warren Buffett is "everyman" as multibillionaire. Despite his vast wealth, he has always eschewed ostentation. He pays himself about $100,000 annually, which in today's U.S. economy places him in the upper-middle-class. He lives in the same simple Omaha, Nebraska, house that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He prefers an old gray suit to expensive London tailoring. In Buffett's early days, when he was only a multimillionaire and not a multibillionaire, he walked around with holes in the soles of his shoes. To Buffett, wardrobe doesn't matter; what matters is making money. He is better at this pursuit than anyone else in the world. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked him as the globe's richest man, with a net worth of $62.3 billion. Author Alice Schroeder does a masterful job of chronicling Buffett's improbable, inspiring life. As a former superstar research analyst, Schroeder uses her expert knowledge of finance and commerce to detail Buffett's investment philosophy and business activities. getAbstract praises Schroeder's remarkable skills as a researcher and writer. Her book is packed with fascinating details and trenchant observations about the "Oracle of Omaha." One of the best business biographies available, this book shows how the world's greatest investor amassed the world's greatest fortune, while staying true to his essential self.

WOW, 12 Nov 2008
Was completely blown away by this book. I was always going to be interested in the business side of this book, but it was the personal side that really suprised me. A really well written piece. A truly amazing story about a life well spent!!

best insight into buffetts life so far, 18 Oct 2008
This is the best insight into the sages life that you will probably ever get. I think i have read every book written about buffett so far. This one tells you more about what makes up this truely amazing value investor.

Its a long read but worth every bit. I think alice schroeder has done an excellent job.

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

To a great extent, his life has been business...and business has been his life, 17 Nov 2008

I recently re-read Roger Lowenstein's biography, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (first published in 1995 and now re-issued with a new Afterword), and then read this more recent one by Alice Schroeder. Both are first-rate. Which to select if reading only one? That depends on how much you wish to know about Buffett's personal life, including his relations with various family members, and how curious you are about his personal hang-ups, peculiarities, eccentricities, fetishes, etc. If you can do without any of that, Roger Lowenstein's biography is the one to read. I also highly recommend the recently published Second Edition of The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, with content selected, arranged, and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham.

The heft of Schroeder's biography may discourage some people from obtaining a copy. To them I presume to suggest that they not be deterred by that factor. Schroeder has a lively, often entertaining writing style that drives the narrative through just about every period and (yes) interlude of Warren Buffett's life and career thus far. There is much more information provided than most readers either need or desire. However, she had unprecedented access not only to Buffett but to just about everyone else with whom he is (or once was) associated as well as to previously inaccessible research resources. It is possible but highly unlikely that anyone else will write a more comprehensive biography than Schroeder has, at least for the next several years, if not decades. Also, her opinion of Buffett seems to me to be balanced and circumspect. No doubt he wishes that certain details about his life and career were not included. However, there has been no indication from him or those authorized to represent him that any of the material in this biography (however unflattering) is either inaccurate or unfair. Both halos and warts are included.

Others have shared their reasons for holding this book in high regard. Here are two of mine. First, although I had already read various Buffett's chairman's letters that first appeared in a series of Berkshire Hathaway's annual reports, I did not understand (nor could I have understood) the context for observations he shared, especially his comments about especially important 12-month periods throughout BRK's history. Schroeder provides the context or frame-of-reference I needed but previously lacked. For example, whereas in previous letters, Buffett merely offered brief updates on how each BRK company was doing, in 1978 he began to share his thoughts about major business topics such as performance measurement for management and why short-term earnings were a poor criterion for investment decisions. With the help of Carol Loomis, especially since 1977, his chairman's letters "had grown more personal and entertaining by the year; they amounted to crash courses in business, written in clear language that ranged from biblical quotations to references to Alice in Wonderland, and princesses kissing toads." As Schroeder explains, these gradual but significant changes of subject and tone reflect changes in Buffett's personal life as he became more reflective about business principles and more appreciative of personal relationships. His children were growing up and departing the "nest" in Omaha. His wife Susie decided to relocate to San Francisco. Meanwhile, his personal net worth continued to increase substantially. His national and then international recognition also increased. The "Oracle of Omaha" had finally become sufficiently confident of himself to reveal to others "a sense of him as a man."

I also appreciate how carefully Schroeder develops several separate but related themes that help her reader to manage the wealth of information she provides. The biography's title suggests one of these themes: the "snowball" effect that compounded interest can have. From childhood when he began to sell packs of gum (but not single sticks) and bottles of soda, and a money changer was his favorite toy, Buffett was fascinated by the way that numbers "exploded as they grew at a constant rate over time was how a small sum could be turned into a fortune. He could picture the numbers compounding as vividly as the way a snowball grew when he rolled it across the lawn. Warren began to think about it a different way. Compounding married the present to the future. If a dollar today was going to be worth ten some years from now, then in his mind the two were the same." Early in life, Buffett avoided making any purchases unless they were almost certain to generate compound interest. This theme is central to understanding Buffett's investment principles and to his own leadership of BRK. It also helps to explain why he could become physically ill when an investment cost others the funds they had entrusted to his care. Other themes include his determination to simplify his life to the extent he could (e.g. eating hamburgers and wearing threadbare sweaters, minimizing participation in family activities) so that he could concentrate almost entirely on business matters; his dependence on a series of women, beginning with his mother and two sisters (especially Doris) that continued with his first wife Susie (and their daughter "Susie Jr.") and then companion Astrid Menks whom he married in 2006; and his passion for helping others to understand the business principles to which he has been committed since childhood.

There is one other theme of special interest and importance to me: over the years, how Buffett has interacted with various associates, notably with Jerome Newman and Benjamin Graham, Sandy Gottesman, Charlie Munger, Bill Ruane, Katherine Graham, and Bill Gates. By all accounts, Buffett is a superb business associate once he agrees to become involved. He cares deeply about each relationship, does whatever may be necessary to protect and defend the best interests of his associates, and is extraordinarily generous with material rewards as well as recognition. Here is an especially revealing excerpt from Cunningham's Introduction to The Essays of Warren Buffett: "The CEOs at Berkshire's operating companies enjoy a unique position in corporate America. They are given a simple set of commands: to run the business as if (1) they are its sole owner, (2) it is the only asset they hold, and (3) they can never sell or merge it for one hundred years." These three "commands" are wholly consistent with what Lawrence explains earlier in the same Introduction: "The central theme uniting Buffett's lucid essays is that the principles of fundamental business analysis, first formulated by his teachers Ben Graham and David Dodd, should guide investment practice. Linked to that theme are management principles that define the proper role of corporate managers as the stewards of investment capital and the proper role of shareholders as the suppliers and owners of capital. Radiating from these main themes are practical and sensible lessons on the entire range of important business issues, from accounting to mergers to valuation." Those who shared Buffett's same core values of honesty and integrity, and who are also committed to the same basic principles, cherish their relationship with him.

To me, Alice Schroeder's rigorous and eloquent analysis of this theme of mutually productive and beneficial collaboration is her single greatest achievement among many in this definitive biography of one of the most important and yet least understood business leaders in recent years. Bravo!

No silver bullet, 16 Nov 2008
Understanding Buffett has become a modern Holy Grail, the pot of gold at the end of a seventy eight year rainbow. How does he do it? How can ordinary people even come close? Having met him first in 2001, Alice Schroeder was first allowed in to the inner sanctum, then granted unfettered access to the man himself "You'll do a better job than I would, Alice. I'm glad you're writing this book, not me". He adds "Whenever my version is different from somebody else's, use the less flattering version".

Five years, 960 pages, 62 chapters, 90 pages of notes, 32 pages of photos, 23 pages of index later, Schroeder has brought us The Snowball, Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Berkshire Hathaway put on over $50 billion of market capitalisation whilst she was writing it. That's over $50 million for each page. No wonder Buffett was happy to entrust the book to Schroeder. Writing books doesn't usually add value that fast.

Schroeder demonstrates that, after all this detailed research, much from the man himself and other primary sources, there is no silver bullet. This may disappoint critiques of other works on Buffett who seemed to be seeking one and were rather hoping that the official biography would, at last, provide it. Rather, what emerges is a combination of old fashioned focus, discipline, common sense, the ability to get with people, to push them just beyond their comfort zone but keep them onside, to drive hard bargains but still remain popular, to calculate business risks and probabilities with consummate ease, accuracy and success, and to continue to seek great businesses at affordable prices. A complex approach from a deeply complex, old-fashioned yet fully at ease in the moment, extremely well-connected and quite remarkable man who has defied the odds and, in the process, conclusively disproved and outlived the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.

Having read The Snowball, the Shareholder Letters and a number of other books on Buffett, the author of this review is still left wondering how he really managed it. There is plenty of inspiration in The Snowball for would-be investors. Many mistakes are also profiled - and the lessons to be learned from them. The book was worth the wait, but don't expect it to reveal all the answers. Otherwise we would all be billionaires.


Remarkably detailed biography of Buffett, 14 Nov 2008
Warren Buffett is "everyman" as multibillionaire. Despite his vast wealth, he has always eschewed ostentation. He pays himself about $100,000 annually, which in today's U.S. economy places him in the upper-middle-class. He lives in the same simple Omaha, Nebraska, house that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He prefers an old gray suit to expensive London tailoring. In Buffett's early days, when he was only a multimillionaire and not a multibillionaire, he walked around with holes in the soles of his shoes. To Buffett, wardrobe doesn't matter; what matters is making money. He is better at this pursuit than anyone else in the world. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked him as the globe's richest man, with a net worth of $62.3 billion. Author Alice Schroeder does a masterful job of chronicling Buffett's improbable, inspiring life. As a former superstar research analyst, Schroeder uses her expert knowledge of finance and commerce to detail Buffett's investment philosophy and business activities. getAbstract praises Schroeder's remarkable skills as a researcher and writer. Her book is packed with fascinating details and trenchant observations about the "Oracle of Omaha." One of the best business biographies available, this book shows how the world's greatest investor amassed the world's greatest fortune, while staying true to his essential self.

WOW, 12 Nov 2008
Was completely blown away by this book. I was always going to be interested in the business side of this book, but it was the personal side that really suprised me. A really well written piece. A truly amazing story about a life well spent!!

best insight into buffetts life so far, 18 Oct 2008
This is the best insight into the sages life that you will probably ever get. I think i have read every book written about buffett so far. This one tells you more about what makes up this truely amazing value investor.

Its a long read but worth every bit. I think alice schroeder has done an excellent job.

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

Debunking myths, economy, philosophy, 26 Nov 2008
I really don't know what the people giving one star only to this book are smoking.

First things first. If you expect to read this book casually like you would read an easy novel, then this certainly is not the book for you.

What Soros is asking from you is to read, take pause, and think.

Soros is not only bringing into question the fundamental paradigms about how capitalism works, he is also bringing into question the whole foundation of enlightened Western thinking since the Renaissance. Another reviewer said Soros was delaing in platitudes. Phwa! He obviously skimmed a bit too much...

That my friends is not a small fish to fry, it is the first book or article I have seen linking the failure of markets to a misconception at the very heart of rational thinking.

Soros makes reference to philosophy in order to explain why economists use mathematics models based on bogus assumptions. This is important and is worth thinking about.

If anything, you get a valuable insight in how a guy that is making tons of money is thinking. That by itself should be enough reason to read this book.



Philosophy and Finance, 06 Oct 2008
This is very much like Soros's other books: a mix of (his own) Philosophy in PART I, and its possible applicability to the Finance markets of the time in PART II.

If you like Taleb's mix of Philosophy and Finance in Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable then you'll Soros's approach.

If you're looking to emulate Soros's success, this book doesn't tell you how to do this in concrete steps. The theory of reflexivity explains the nature of financial markets (the problem) but doesn't give a solution.

Tony Loton, author --
DON'T LOSE MONEY! (in the Stock Markets)
Financial Trading Patterns

He's got the answer, 05 Oct 2008
Hidden inside the book, towards the end, Mr. Soros points out that when those who create credit are in trouble the government has to bail them out, as credit creation is too important. Therefore they should accept that since they are at government protection and they need to pay a price. And the price is anti-bubble-cycle regulation (my words, he puts it much more elegantly in the book).

With this acceptance on both sides we can work towards minimal effective regulation, not just petty throwing of insults between 'hippies' and 'capitalists'.

This issue is way to important to be left to the extremes to deal with. All of us, in the more moderate middle ground, need to get in on this debate at a finer level of discourse.

And Mr. Soros provides a very useful framework for this.

Waste of time, 09 Sep 2008
Starts off ambitiously attempting to explain the credit crunch, spends a few chapters reiterating why his ideology was not accepted earlier on, and ends proposing a philosophical view of the financial markets....just to say that market performance is a function of what other people do...hardly a revelation and more importantly, no suggestion as to what to do with this "revelation". Last section explains his portfolio performance with market events, which was interesting.

I'll say that again, 29 Aug 2008
As this was by George Soros, whom I respect greatly, I felt I had to read it but ended up very disappointed. In short, Soros feels his theory on reflexivity has been ignored and therefore needs to be repeated. This he does and further fills the book with the reasons why he needs to repeat it, particularly because he thinks the credit crunch vidicates his argument.

Very repetitive to the extent that some comments are even repeated on the same page. This is a book which says very little and, to be frank, is not really worth reading.

To a great extent, his life has been business...and business has been his life, 17 Nov 2008

I recently re-read Roger Lowenstein's biography, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (first published in 1995 and now re-issued with a new Afterword), and then read this more recent one by Alice Schroeder. Both are first-rate. Which to select if reading only one? That depends on how much you wish to know about Buffett's personal life, including his relations with various family members, and how curious you are about his personal hang-ups, peculiarities, eccentricities, fetishes, etc. If you can do without any of that, Roger Lowenstein's biography is the one to read. I also highly recommend the recently published Second Edition of The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, with content selected, arranged, and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham.

The heft of Schroeder's biography may discourage some people from obtaining a copy. To them I presume to suggest that they not be deterred by that factor. Schroeder has a lively, often entertaining writing style that drives the narrative through just about every period and (yes) interlude of Warren Buffett's life and career thus far. There is much more information provided than most readers either need or desire. However, she had unprecedented access not only to Buffett but to just about everyone else with whom he is (or once was) associated as well as to previously inaccessible research resources. It is possible but highly unlikely that anyone else will write a more comprehensive biography than Schroeder has, at least for the next several years, if not decades. Also, her opinion of Buffett seems to me to be balanced and circumspect. No doubt he wishes that certain details about his life and career were not included. However, there has been no indication from him or those authorized to represent him that any of the material in this biography (however unflattering) is either inaccurate or unfair. Both halos and warts are included.

Others have shared their reasons for holding this book in high regard. Here are two of mine. First, although I had already read various Buffett's chairman's letters that first appeared in a series of Berkshire Hathaway's annual reports, I did not understand (nor could I have understood) the context for observations he shared, especially his comments about especially important 12-month periods throughout BRK's history. Schroeder provides the context or frame-of-reference I needed but previously lacked. For example, whereas in previous letters, Buffett merely offered brief updates on how each BRK company was doing, in 1978 he began to share his thoughts about major business topics such as performance measurement for management and why short-term earnings were a poor criterion for investment decisions. With the help of Carol Loomis, especially since 1977, his chairman's letters "had grown more personal and entertaining by the year; they amounted to crash courses in business, written in clear language that ranged from biblical quotations to references to Alice in Wonderland, and princesses kissing toads." As Schroeder explains, these gradual but significant changes of subject and tone reflect changes in Buffett's personal life as he became more reflective about business principles and more appreciative of personal relationships. His children were growing up and departing the "nest" in Omaha. His wife Susie decided to relocate to San Francisco. Meanwhile, his personal net worth continued to increase substantially. His national and then international recognition also increased. The "Oracle of Omaha" had finally become sufficiently confident of himself to reveal to others "a sense of him as a man."

I also appreciate how carefully Schroeder develops several separate but related themes that help her reader to manage the wealth of information she provides. The biography's title suggests one of these themes: the "snowball" effect that compounded interest can have. From childhood when he began to sell packs of gum (but not single sticks) and bottles of soda, and a money changer was his favorite toy, Buffett was fascinated by the way that numbers "exploded as they grew at a constant rate over time was how a small sum could be turned into a fortune. He could picture the numbers compounding as vividly as the way a snowball grew when he rolled it across the lawn. Warren began to think about it a different way. Compounding married the present to the future. If a dollar today was going to be worth ten some years from now, then in his mind the two were the same." Early in life, Buffett avoided making any purchases unless they were almost certain to generate compound interest. This theme is central to understanding Buffett's investment principles and to his own leadership of BRK. It also helps to explain why he could become physically ill when an investment cost others the funds they had entrusted to his care. Other themes include his determination to simplify his life to the extent he could (e.g. eating hamburgers and wearing threadbare sweaters, minimizing participation in family activities) so that he could concentrate almost entirely on business matters; his dependence on a series of women, beginning with his mother and two sisters (especially Doris) that continued with his first wife Susie (and their daughter "Susie Jr.") and then companion Astrid Menks whom he married in 2006; and his passion for helping others to understand the business principles to which he has been committed since childhood.

There is one other theme of special interest and importance to me: over the years, how Buffett has interacted with various associates, notably with Jerome Newman and Benjamin Graham, Sandy Gottesman, Charlie Munger, Bill Ruane, Katherine Graham, and Bill Gates. By all accounts, Buffett is a superb business associate once he agrees to become involved. He cares deeply about each relationship, does whatever may be necessary to protect and defend the best interests of his associates, and is extraordinarily generous with material rewards as well as recognition. Here is an especially revealing excerpt from Cunningham's Introduction to The Essays of Warren Buffett: "The CEOs at Berkshire's operating companies enjoy a unique position in corporate America. They are given a simple set of commands: to run the business as if (1) they are its sole owner, (2) it is the only asset they hold, and (3) they can never sell or merge it for one hundred years." These three "commands" are wholly consistent with what Lawrence explains earlier in the same Introduction: "The central theme uniting Buffett's lucid essays is that the principles of fundamental business analysis, first formulated by his teachers Ben Graham and David Dodd, should guide investment practice. Linked to that theme are management principles that define the proper role of corporate managers as the stewards of investment capital and the proper role of shareholders as the suppliers and owners of capital. Radiating from these main themes are practical and sensible lessons on the entire range of important business issues, from accounting to mergers to valuation." Those who shared Buffett's same core values of honesty and integrity, and who are also committed to the same basic principles, cherish their relationship with him.

To me, Alice Schroeder's rigorous and eloquent analysis of this theme of mutually productive and beneficial collaboration is her single greatest achievement among many in this definitive biography of one of the most important and yet least understood business leaders in recent years. Bravo!

No silver bullet, 16 Nov 2008
Understanding Buffett has become a modern Holy Grail, the pot of gold at the end of a seventy eight year rainbow. How does he do it? How can ordinary people even come close? Having met him first in 2001, Alice Schroeder was first allowed in to the inner sanctum, then granted unfettered access to the man himself "You'll do a better job than I would, Alice. I'm glad you're writing this book, not me". He adds "Whenever my version is different from somebody else's, use the less flattering version".

Five years, 960 pages, 62 chapters, 90 pages of notes, 32 pages of photos, 23 pages of index later, Schroeder has brought us The Snowball, Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Berkshire Hathaway put on over $50 billion of market capitalisation whilst she was writing it. That's over $50 million for each page. No wonder Buffett was happy to entrust the book to Schroeder. Writing books doesn't usually add value that fast.

Schroeder demonstrates that, after all this detailed research, much from the man himself and other primary sources, there is no silver bullet. This may disappoint critiques of other works on Buffett who seemed to be seeking one and were rather hoping that the official biography would, at last, provide it. Rather, what emerges is a combination of old fashioned focus, discipline, common sense, the ability to get with people, to push them just beyond their comfort zone but keep them onside, to drive hard bargains but still remain popular, to calculate business risks and probabilities with consummate ease, accuracy and success, and to continue to seek great businesses at affordable prices. A complex approach from a deeply complex, old-fashioned yet fully at ease in the moment, extremely well-connected and quite remarkable man who has defied the odds and, in the process, conclusively disproved and outlived the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.

Having read The Snowball, the Shareholder Letters and a number of other books on Buffett, the author of this review is still left wondering how he really managed it. There is plenty of inspiration in The Snowball for would-be investors. Many mistakes are also profiled - and the lessons to be learned from them. The book was worth the wait, but don't expect it to reveal all the answers. Otherwise we would all be billionaires.


Remarkably detailed biography of Buffett, 14 Nov 2008
Warren Buffett is "everyman" as multibillionaire. Despite his vast wealth, he has always eschewed ostentation. He pays himself about $100,000 annually, which in today's U.S. economy places him in the upper-middle-class. He lives in the same simple Omaha, Nebraska, house that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He prefers an old gray suit to expensive London tailoring. In Buffett's early days, when he was only a multimillionaire and not a multibillionaire, he walked around with holes in the soles of his shoes. To Buffett, wardrobe doesn't matter; what matters is making money. He is better at this pursuit than anyone else in the world. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked him as the globe's richest man, with a net worth of $62.3 billion. Author Alice Schroeder does a masterful job of chronicling Buffett's improbable, inspiring life. As a former superstar research analyst, Schroeder uses her expert knowledge of finance and commerce to detail Buffett's investment philosophy and business activities. getAbstract praises Schroeder's remarkable skills as a researcher and writer. Her book is packed with fascinating details and trenchant observations about the "Oracle of Omaha." One of the best business biographies available, this book shows how the world's greatest investor amassed the world's greatest fortune, while staying true to his essential self.

WOW, 12 Nov 2008
Was completely blown away by this book. I was always going to be interested in the business side of this book, but it was the personal side that really suprised me. A really well written piece. A truly amazing story about a life well spent!!

best insight into buffetts life so far, 18 Oct 2008
This is the best insight into the sages life that you will probably ever get. I think i have read every book written about buffett so far. This one tells you more about what makes up this truely amazing value investor.

Its a long read but worth every bit. I think alice schroeder has done an excellent job.

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

Debunking myths, economy, philosophy, 26 Nov 2008
I really don't know what the people giving one star only to this book are smoking.

First things first. If you expect to read this book casually like you would read an easy novel, then this certainly is not the book for you.

What Soros is asking from you is to read, take pause, and think.

Soros is not only bringing into question the fundamental paradigms about how capitalism works, he is also bringing into question the whole foundation of enlightened Western thinking since the Renaissance. Another reviewer said Soros was delaing in platitudes. Phwa! He obviously skimmed a bit too much...

That my friends is not a small fish to fry, it is the first book or article I have seen linking the failure of markets to a misconception at the very heart of rational thinking.

Soros makes reference to philosophy in order to explain why economists use mathematics models based on bogus assumptions. This is important and is worth thinking about.

If anything, you get a valuable insight in how a guy that is making tons of money is thinking. That by itself should be enough reason to read this book.



Philosophy and Finance, 06 Oct 2008
This is very much like Soros's other books: a mix of (his own) Philosophy in PART I, and its possible applicability to the Finance markets of the time in PART II.

If you like Taleb's mix of Philosophy and Finance in Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable then you'll Soros's approach.

If you're looking to emulate Soros's success, this book doesn't tell you how to do this in concrete steps. The theory of reflexivity explains the nature of financial markets (the problem) but doesn't give a solution.

Tony Loton, author --
DON'T LOSE MONEY! (in the Stock Markets)
Financial Trading Patterns

He's got the answer, 05 Oct 2008
Hidden inside the book, towards the end, Mr. Soros points out that when those who create credit are in trouble the government has to bail them out, as credit creation is too important. Therefore they should accept that since they are at government protection and they need to pay a price. And the price is anti-bubble-cycle regulation (my words, he puts it much more elegantly in the book).

With this acceptance on both sides we can work towards minimal effective regulation, not just petty throwing of insults between 'hippies' and 'capitalists'.

This issue is way to important to be left to the extremes to deal with. All of us, in the more moderate middle ground, need to get in on this debate at a finer level of discourse.

And Mr. Soros provides a very useful framework for this.

Waste of time, 09 Sep 2008
Starts off ambitiously attempting to explain the credit crunch, spends a few chapters reiterating why his ideology was not accepted earlier on, and ends proposing a philosophical view of the financial markets....just to say that market performance is a function of what other people do...hardly a revelation and more importantly, no suggestion as to what to do with this "revelation". Last section explains his portfolio performance with market events, which was interesting.

I'll say that again, 29 Aug 2008
As this was by George Soros, whom I respect greatly, I felt I had to read it but ended up very disappointed. In short, Soros feels his theory on reflexivity has been ignored and therefore needs to be repeated. This he does and further fills the book with the reasons why he needs to repeat it, particularly because he thinks the credit crunch vidicates his argument.

Very repetitive to the extent that some comments are even repeated on the same page. This is a book which says very little and, to be frank, is not really worth reading.

A must read for the serious investor, 06 Aug 2008
The language may be a bit dated but the advice is still good, proving there is little new in the world of investing. If you follow Graham's practical advice on valuing companies, assessing risk and investing for the long term you will make money.

Lives up to the hype, 07 Jun 2007
Most investors seem to have heard of this book - many refer to it as the bible of value investing. I think that the esteem that it is held in is probably counter productive (Barton Biggs, hedge fund manager, talks about being asked to read and annotate it twice as a young man), but what impressed me is that it is a very simple readable book that explains how to invest long term, to maximise wealth.

I don't think that Zweig's commentary adds much - I would pay more for a version with it excised - it provides interesting detail on what Graham may have considered important which is great, but it also provides a lot of anecdotal evidence which could be misleading. It also triples the length and provides a lot of distraction.

Invest In This Book, Invest In Yourself, 24 Sep 2006
With more than one million copies sold and an endorsement on the cover by Warren Buffet, you know there has to be something to this book- and I think I know why. Simply because it is the first book ever to describe the emotional framework and analytical tools necessary for financial success for individual investors.

Probably the single best book on investing written for the lay-public and the stock market bible since its first appearance in 1949, it's a great resource, although it's quite a thick book and filled with detail- and probably not for anybody but the serious stock market investor. And if getting motivated to start investing is your problem, suggest The Sixty-Second Motivator. Good luck!



Two books: one old and good, one new and bad, 21 Sep 2006
This edition of The Intelligent Investor is really two books in one. There is the original 1973 edition of Ben Graham's classic on "value investing" and then a commentary on each chapter by Jason Zweig.
Graham's text is solid, a little heavy, sometimes a little out of date, and some of his tables a bit user-unfriendly; but no matter: it is the timeless lessons he teaches that matter. He is very methodical, a bit mathematical and -- if you follow him all the way -- will leave you with a good grounding in how to approach the stock market.
Basically his gospel is this: ignore all the hype and blather around the stockmarket. Invest for the long-term in big, rock-steady, simple businesses, after analysing them with a few financial criteria. But only buy when the market is offering them at a bargain price.
Unfortunately, each of Graham's sober tutorials is followed by a commentary by Zweig. He may claim to be a disciple of the great man, but he is certainly not cut from the same cloth. Zweig is just one more financial markets cheerleader: repetitive, pushy, and rolling out the same old disaster stories from the dot.com era ad nauseam, supposedly to show how wise Graham was (in case you didn't understand Graham's chapter). He also repeatedly cites his own magazine and keeps naming the same fund, which is annoying at the very least. He also resorts to a lot of "if you had bought shares on every third Wednesday since 1974 you would have made a 3,859 percent return!!" kind of hocus-pocus which is a complete waste of time.
Zweig could have used the opportunity to unpick some of the knottier points of Graham's book and help readers understand the harder parts. The worst thing is that he sometimes goes against Graham's teachings, so he should NOT be taken as an extension of Graham! (For example, on page 129 he says if you don't have time to choose your own stocks, there's no shame in hiring someone to pick them for you. On page 243, he says "In the financial markets, luck is more important than skill". Ben Graham must be turning in his grave.)
One more caveat: this volume boasts a preface and appendix by Warren Buffett, Ben Graham's most famous pupil. But don't be swayed by that. The preface is an obituary written by Buffett and the appendix is an edited talk that Buffett gave in 1984. They're okay but it doesn't mean that Buffett is backing this schizoid volume.
My advice: read the Graham chapters, ditch the Zweig commentary. You'll save time AND be wiser.

Definitive guide to value investing, 10 Sep 2006
This is probably the best place to start if you are interested in value investing. Although the latest revision by Graham was in the seventies, Jazon Zweig adds commentaries to each chapter to bring the information right up to date. The principles of investment are sound and the style of writing is very accessible. This is a classic investment book and should be read by most people planning for their financial future. Highly recommended.

To a great extent, his life has been business...and business has been his life, 17 Nov 2008

I recently re-read Roger Lowenstein's biography, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (first published in 1995 and now re-issued with a new Afterword), and then read this more recent one by Alice Schroeder. Both are first-rate. Which to select if reading only one? That depends on how much you wish to know about Buffett's personal life, including his relations with various family members, and how curious you are about his personal hang-ups, peculiarities, eccentricities, fetishes, etc. If you can do without any of that, Roger Lowenstein's biography is the one to read. I also highly recommend the recently published Second Edition of The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, with content selected, arranged, and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham.

The heft of Schroeder's biography may discourage some people from obtaining a copy. To them I presume to suggest that they not be deterred by that factor. Schroeder has a lively, often entertaining writing style that drives the narrative through just about every period and (yes) interlude of Warren Buffett's life and career thus far. There is much more information provided than most readers either need or desire. However, she had unprecedented access not only to Buffett but to just about everyone else with whom he is (or once was) associated as well as to previously inaccessible research resources. It is possible but highly unlikely that anyone else will write a more comprehensive biography than Schroeder has, at least for the next several years, if not decades. Also, her opinion of Buffett seems to me to be balanced and circumspect. No doubt he wishes that certain details about his life and career were not included. However, there has been no indication from him or those authorized to represent him that any of the material in this biography (however unflattering) is either inaccurate or unfair. Both halos and warts are included.

Others have shared their reasons for holding this book in high regard. Here are two of mine. First, although I had already read various Buffett's chairman's letters that first appeared in a series of Berkshire Hathaway's annual reports, I did not understand (nor could I have understood) the context for observations he shared, especially his comments about especially important 12-month periods throughout BRK's history. Schroeder provides the context or frame-of-reference I needed but previously lacked. For example, whereas in previous letters, Buffett merely offered brief updates on how each BRK company was doing, in 1978 he began to share his thoughts about major business topics such as performance measurement for management and why short-term earnings were a poor criterion for investment decisions. With the help of Carol Loomis, especially since 1977, his chairman's letters "had grown more personal and entertaining by the year; they amounted to crash courses in business, written in clear language that ranged from biblical quotations to references to Alice in Wonderland, and princesses kissing toads." As Schroeder explains, these gradual but significant changes of subject and tone reflect changes in Buffett's personal life as he became more reflective about business principles and more appreciative of personal relationships. His children were growing up and departing the "nest" in Omaha. His wife Susie decided to relocate to San Francisco. Meanwhile, his personal net worth continued to increase substantially. His national and then international recognition also increased. The "Oracle of Omaha" had finally become sufficiently confident of himself to reveal to others "a sense of him as a man."

I also appreciate how carefully Schroeder develops several separate but related themes that help her reader to manage the wealth of information she provides. The biography's title suggests one of these themes: the "snowball" effect that compounded interest can have. From childhood when he began to sell packs of gum (but not single sticks) and bottles of soda, and a money changer was his favorite toy, Buffett was fascinated by the way that numbers "exploded as they grew at a constant rate over time was how a small sum could be turned into a fortune. He could picture the numbers compounding as vividly as the way a snowball grew when he rolled it across the lawn. Warren began to think about it a different way. Compounding married the present to the future. If a dollar today was going to be worth ten some years from now, then in his mind the two were the same." Early in life, Buffett avoided making any purchases unless they were almost certain to generate compound interest. This theme is central to understanding Buffett's investment principles and to his own leadership of BRK. It also helps to explain why he could become physically ill when an investment cost others the funds they had entrusted to his care. Other themes include his determination to simplify his life to the extent he could (e.g. eating hamburgers and wearing threadbare sweaters, minimizing participation in family activities) so that he could concentrate almost entirely on business matters; his dependence on a series of women, beginning with his mother and two sisters (especially Doris) that continued with his first wife Susie (and their daughter "Susie Jr.") and then companion Astrid Menks whom he married in 2006; and his passion for helping others to understand the business principles to which he has been committed since childhood.

There is one other theme of special interest and importance to me: over the years, how Buffett has interacted with various associates, notably with Jerome Newman and Benjamin Graham, Sandy Gottesman, Charlie Munger, Bill Ruane, Katherine Graham, and Bill Gates. By all accounts, Buffett is a superb business associate once he agrees to become involved. He cares deeply about each relationship, does whatever may be necessary to protect and defend the best interests of his associates, and is extraordinarily generous with material rewards as well as recognition. Here is an especially revealing excerpt from Cunningham's Introduction to The Essays of Warren Buffett: "The CEOs at Berkshire's operating companies enjoy a unique position in corporate America. They are given a simple set of commands: to run the business as if (1) they are its sole owner, (2) it is the only asset they hold, and (3) they can never sell or merge it for one hundred years." These three "commands" are wholly consistent with what Lawrence explains earlier in the same Introduction: "The central theme uniting Buffett's lucid essays is that the principles of fundamental business analysis, first formulated by his teachers Ben Graham and David Dodd, should guide investment practice. Linked to that theme are management principles that define the proper role of corporate managers as the stewards of investment capital and the proper role of shareholders as the suppliers and owners of capital. Radiating from these main themes are practical and sensible lessons on the entire range of important business issues, from accounting to mergers to valuation." Those who shared Buffett's same core values of honesty and integrity, and who are also committed to the same basic principles, cherish their relationship with him.

To me, Alice Schroeder's rigorous and eloquent analysis of this theme of mutually productive and beneficial collaboration is her single greatest achievement among many in this definitive biography of one of the most important and yet least understood business leaders in recent years. Bravo!

No silver bullet, 16 Nov 2008
Understanding Buffett has become a modern Holy Grail, the pot of gold at the end of a seventy eight year rainbow. How does he do it? How can ordinary people even come close? Having met him first in 2001, Alice Schroeder was first allowed in to the inner sanctum, then granted unfettered access to the man himself "You'll do a better job than I would, Alice. I'm glad you're writing this book, not me". He adds "Whenever my version is different from somebody else's, use the less flattering version".

Five years, 960 pages, 62 chapters, 90 pages of notes, 32 pages of photos, 23 pages of index later, Schroeder has brought us The Snowball, Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Berkshire Hathaway put on over $50 billion of market capitalisation whilst she was writing it. That's over $50 million for each page. No wonder Buffett was happy to entrust the book to Schroeder. Writing books doesn't usually add value that fast.

Schroeder demonstrates that, after all this detailed research, much from the man himself and other primary sources, there is no silver bullet. This may disappoint critiques of other works on Buffett who seemed to be seeking one and were rather hoping that the official biography would, at last, provide it. Rather, what emerges is a combination of old fashioned focus, discipline, common sense, the ability to get with people, to push them just beyond their comfort zone but keep them onside, to drive hard bargains but still remain popular, to calculate business risks and probabilities with consummate ease, accuracy and success, and to continue to seek great businesses at affordable prices. A complex approach from a deeply complex, old-fashioned yet fully at ease in the moment, extremely well-connected and quite remarkable man who has defied the odds and, in the process, conclusively disproved and outlived the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.

Having read The Snowball, the Shareholder Letters and a number of other books on Buffett, the author of this review is still left wondering how he really managed it. There is plenty of inspiration in The Snowball for would-be investors. Many mistakes are also profiled - and the lessons to be learned from them. The book was worth the wait, but don't expect it to reveal all the answers. Otherwise we would all be billionaires.


Remarkably detailed biography of Buffett, 14 Nov 2008
Warren Buffett is "everyman" as multibillionaire. Despite his vast wealth, he has always eschewed ostentation. He pays himself about $100,000 annually, which in today's U.S. economy places him in the upper-middle-class. He lives in the same simple Omaha, Nebraska, house that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He prefers an old gray suit to expensive London tailoring. In Buffett's early days, when he was only a multimillionaire and not a multibillionaire, he walked around with holes in the soles of his shoes. To Buffett, wardrobe doesn't matter; what matters is making money. He is better at this pursuit than anyone else in the world. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked him as the globe's richest man, with a net worth of $62.3 billion. Author Alice Schroeder does a masterful job of chronicling Buffett's improbable, inspiring life. As a former superstar research analyst, Schroeder uses her expert knowledge of finance and commerce to detail Buffett's investment philosophy and business activities. getAbstract praises Schroeder's remarkable skills as a researcher and writer. Her book is packed with fascinating details and trenchant observations about the "Oracle of Omaha." One of the best business biographies available, this book shows how the world's greatest investor amassed the world's greatest fortune, while staying true to his essential self.

WOW, 12 Nov 2008
Was completely blown away by this book. I was always going to be interested in the business side of this book, but it was the personal side that really suprised me. A really well written piece. A truly amazing story about a life well spent!!

best insight into buffetts life so far, 18 Oct 2008
This is the best insight into the sages life that you will probably ever get. I think i have read every book written about buffett so far. This one tells you more about what makes up this truely amazing value investor.

Its a long read but worth every bit. I think alice schroeder has done an excellent job.

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

Debunking myths, economy, philosophy, 26 Nov 2008
I really don't know what the people giving one star only to this book are smoking.

First things first. If you expect to read this book casually like you would read an easy novel, then this certainly is not the book for you.

What Soros is asking from you is to read, take pause, and think.

Soros is not only bringing into question the fundamental paradigms about how capitalism works, he is also bringing into question the whole foundation of enlightened Western thinking since the Renaissance. Another reviewer said Soros was delaing in platitudes. Phwa! He obviously skimmed a bit too much...

That my friends is not a small fish to fry, it is the first book or article I have seen linking the failure of markets to a misconception at the very heart of rational thinking.

Soros makes reference to philosophy in order to explain why economists use mathematics models based on bogus assumptions. This is important and is worth thinking about.

If anything, you get a valuable insight in how a guy that is making tons of money is thinking. That by itself should be enough reason to read this book.



Philosophy and Finance, 06 Oct 2008
This is very much like Soros's other books: a mix of (his own) Philosophy in PART I, and its possible applicability to the Finance markets of the time in PART II.

If you like Taleb's mix of Philosophy and Finance in Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable then you'll Soros's approach.

If you're looking to emulate Soros's success, this book doesn't tell you how to do this in concrete steps. The theory of reflexivity explains the nature of financial markets (the problem) but doesn't give a solution.

Tony Loton, author --
DON'T LOSE MONEY! (in the Stock Markets)
Financial Trading Patterns

He's got the answer, 05 Oct 2008
Hidden inside the book, towards the end, Mr. Soros points out that when those who create credit are in trouble the government has to bail them out, as credit creation is too important. Therefore they should accept that since they are at government protection and they need to pay a price. And the price is anti-bubble-cycle regulation (my words, he puts it much more elegantly in the book).

With this acceptance on both sides we can work towards minimal effective regulation, not just petty throwing of insults between 'hippies' and 'capitalists'.

This issue is way to important to be left to the extremes to deal with. All of us, in the more moderate middle ground, need to get in on this debate at a finer level of discourse.

And Mr. Soros provides a very useful framework for this.

Waste of time, 09 Sep 2008
Starts off ambitiously attempting to explain the credit crunch, spends a few chapters reiterating why his ideology was not accepted earlier on, and ends proposing a philosophical view of the financial markets....just to say that market performance is a function of what other people do...hardly a revelation and more importantly, no suggestion as to what to do with this "revelation". Last section explains his portfolio performance with market events, which was interesting.

I'll say that again, 29 Aug 2008
As this was by George Soros, whom I respect greatly, I felt I had to read it but ended up very disappointed. In short, Soros feels his theory on reflexivity has been ignored and therefore needs to be repeated. This he does and further fills the book with the reasons why he needs to repeat it, particularly because he thinks the credit crunch vidicates his argument.

Very repetitive to the extent that some comments are even repeated on the same page. This is a book which says very little and, to be frank, is not really worth reading.

A must read for the serious investor, 06 Aug 2008
The language may be a bit dated but the advice is still good, proving there is little new in the world of investing. If you follow Graham's practical advice on valuing companies, assessing risk and investing for the long term you will make money.

Lives up to the hype, 07 Jun 2007
Most investors seem to have heard of this book - many refer to it as the bible of value investing. I think that the esteem that it is held in is probably counter productive (Barton Biggs, hedge fund manager, talks about being asked to read and annotate it twice as a young man), but what impressed me is that it is a very simple readable book that explains how to invest long term, to maximise wealth.

I don't think that Zweig's commentary adds much - I would pay more for a version with it excised - it provides interesting detail on what Graham may have considered important which is great, but it also provides a lot of anecdotal evidence which could be misleading. It also triples the length and provides a lot of distraction.

Invest In This Book, Invest In Yourself, 24 Sep 2006
With more than one million copies sold and an endorsement on the cover by Warren Buffet, you know there has to be something to this book- and I think I know why. Simply because it is the first book ever to describe the emotional framework and analytical tools necessary for financial success for individual investors.

Probably the single best book on investing written for the lay-public and the stock market bible since its first appearance in 1949, it's a great resource, although it's quite a thick book and filled with detail- and probably not for anybody but the serious stock market investor. And if getting motivated to start investing is your problem, suggest The Sixty-Second Motivator. Good luck!



Two books: one old and good, one new and bad, 21 Sep 2006
This edition of The Intelligent Investor is really two books in one. There is the original 1973 edition of Ben Graham's classic on "value investing" and then a commentary on each chapter by Jason Zweig.
Graham's text is solid, a little heavy, sometimes a little out of date, and some of his tables a bit user-unfriendly; but no matter: it is the timeless lessons he teaches that matter. He is very methodical, a bit mathematical and -- if you follow him all the way -- will leave you with a good grounding in how to approach the stock market.
Basically his gospel is this: ignore all the hype and blather around the stockmarket. Invest for the long-term in big, rock-steady, simple businesses, after analysing them with a few financial criteria. But only buy when the market is offering them at a bargain price.
Unfortunately, each of Graham's sober tutorials is followed by a commentary by Zweig. He may claim to be a disciple of the great man, but he is certainly not cut from the same cloth. Zweig is just one more financial markets cheerleader: repetitive, pushy, and rolling out the same old disaster stories from the dot.com era ad nauseam, supposedly to show how wise Graham was (in case you didn't understand Graham's chapter). He also repeatedly cites his own magazine and keeps naming the same fund, which is annoying at the very least. He also resorts to a lot of "if you had bought shares on every third Wednesday since 1974 you would have made a 3,859 percent return!!" kind of hocus-pocus which is a complete waste of time.
Zweig could have used the opportunity to unpick some of the knottier points of Graham's book and help readers understand the harder parts. The worst thing is that he sometimes goes against Graham's teachings, so he should NOT be taken as an extension of Graham! (For example, on page 129 he says if you don't have time to choose your own stocks, there's no shame in hiring someone to pick them for you. On page 243, he says "In the financial markets, luck is more important than skill". Ben Graham must be turning in his grave.)
One more caveat: this volume boasts a preface and appendix by Warren Buffett, Ben Graham's most famous pupil. But don't be swayed by that. The preface is an obituary written by Buffett and the appendix is an edited talk that Buffett gave in 1984. They're okay but it doesn't mean that Buffett is backing this schizoid volume.
My advice: read the Graham chapters, ditch the Zweig commentary. You'll save time AND be wiser.

Definitive guide to value investing, 10 Sep 2006
This is probably the best place to start if you are interested in value investing. Although the latest revision by Graham was in the seventies, Jazon Zweig adds commentaries to each chapter to bring the information right up to date. The principles of investment are sound and the style of writing is very accessible. This is a classic investment book and should be read by most people planning for their financial future. Highly recommended.

...the paper it's printed on, 03 Dec 2008
Books like this are a disgrace to the industry, which is serious one, and they only sell because of the laddish title. The good news is that the only people who buy them are..., you've guessed it! And no, I haven't bought it, but I looked inside when I saw it on a bookshelf. The contents and the cover match perfectly. Need I say more? Oh, yes, I have rated the book 1 star because the software wouldn't accept any less.

Brilliant, 19 Nov 2008
As a complete novice to the stock market this book is amazing. I only wish that friends who have invested in the stock market, and made a loss, had read this book in the first place. The language is very simple to understand and before you know it you'll be talking and trading like an expert before you know it. If you're serious about making money on the stock market, this book provides you with all of the tools to do so.

A Must Buy!, 12 Oct 2008
Eveything in this book is written in a way that is fun, easy to understand AND invaluable if you intend to trade in shares. It's a steal at this price. I cannnot rate this book highly enough.

Nuff said.

Excellent Book, 18 Sep 2008
This book has full of practical trading tips and summarises the top ten mistakes made by traders. The book is written in plain English, so it's easy to understand and good fun to read too. I have found this book is very useful in my trading.


Without doubt..., 01 Sep 2008
.... the best book currently around for understanding the stock market. Robbie Burns is very good at explaining all the market jargon in a friendly and humourous tone, and there's masses of advice - particularly what not to do! The webiste is well worth a look too.

On September 23, 1998, the boardroom of the New York Fed was a tense place. Around the table sat the heads of every major Wall Street bank, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, and representatives from numerous European banks, each of whom had been summoned by the Fed to discuss the highly unusual prospect of rescuing what had, until then, been the envy of them all, the extraordinarily successful bond-trading firm of Long-Term Capital Management. Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed is the gripping story behind the Fed's unprecedented move, the incredible heights reached by LTCM, and its eventual dramatic demise.

Lowenstein, a financial journalist and author of Buffet: The Making of an American Capitalist, uncovers and examines the personalities, academic expertise, professional relationships, and layers of numbers behind LTCM's roller-coaster ride with the precision and knowledge of a skilled surgeon. The fund's enigmatic founder, John Meriwether, spent almost 20 years at Salomon Brothers, where he formed its renowned Arbitrage Group by hiring academia's top financial economists. Though Meriwether left Salomon under a cloud of the SEC's wrath, he leapt into his next venture with ease, and enticed most of his former Salomon hires--and eventually even David Mullins, the former vice-chairman of the US Federal Reserve--to join him in starting a hedge fund that would beat all hedge funds.

LTCM began trading in February 1994, after completing a road show that, despite the Ph.D.-touting partners' lack of social skills and their disdainful condescension of potential investors who couldn't rise to their intellectual level, netted a whopping 1.25 billion dollars. The fund would seek to earn a tiny spread on thousands of trades, "as if it were vacuuming nickels that others couldn't see," in the words of one of its Nobel laureate partners, Myron Scholes. And nickels it found. In its first two years, LTCM earned 1.6 billion dollars, profits that exceeded forty percent even after the partners' hefty cuts. By the spring of 1996 it was holding $140 billion in assets. But the end was soon in sight, and Lowenstein's detailed account of each successively worse month of 1998, culminating in a disastrous August and the partners' subsequent panicked moves, is riveting.

The arbitrageur's world is a complicated one, and it might have served Lowenstein well to slow down at the start and explain in greater detail the complex terms of the more exotic species of investment flora that cram the book's pages. However, much of the intrigue of the Long-Term story lies in its dizzying pace (not to mention the dizzying amounts of money won and lost in the fund's short lifespan), and Lowenstein's smooth, conversational, but equally urgent tone carries it along well. The book is a compelling read for those who've always wondered what lay behind the Fed's controversial involvement with the LTCM hedge-fund debacle. --S. Ketchum