I’m a big Buffett fan. I saw the news about Sokol come out last night, took a few minutes to digest it and came to the conclusion that he definitely had used some very poor judgement.
Is something is within eyesight of the line that borders appropriate and inappropriate and you are David Sokol the easy decision should have been to take a pass.
My next thought was how long until Alice Schroeder is publicly bashing Buffett for this ?
And the answer appears to be about 12 hours.
Here is her article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-31/buffett-misses-chance-to-show-moral-courage-commentary-by-alice-schroeder.html
With the main part where she gets to stick the knife into my hero:
“It would be inexcusable for the chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway to front-run a potential acquisition this way. Why then, couldn’t the CEO of Berkshire admit it is inexcusable for one of his own senior managers to do so? Instead of condemning Sokol, Buffett gave him a pat on the back on the way out the door. Since when is it enough to merely uphold the letter of the law, especially at Berkshire? Whatever happened to Buffett’s famous saying, “Lose money and I will forgive you, but lose even a shred of reputation and I will be ruthless”?
It’s too bad that Buffett missed an opportunity to show moral courage, stand up for principle, reinforce to his employees what he expects from them, and, not least of all, to live up to his own public reputation. “
I don’t even disagree with most of her points. The problem I have is that if Alice opens her mouth about Warren something disparaging comes out.
Buffett isn’t perfect. I don’t think that for a second. But where would you seriously rank him percentage wise amongst the rest of the citizens of America when it comes to ethical behavior and contribution to society. If it is outside the top decile you are lying.
Let me help you out Alice. Your book hurt Warren’s feelings. Now he isn’t so friendly towards you. Put yourself in his shoes and imagine someone writing a book about you and having the most embarrassing things you could possible imagine in it.
Now grow up and please get over it. He has helped make you a lot of money. And you are still feeding off of him. The man personally is leaving tens of billions of dollars to charity and is on a mission to convince billionaires around the world to do the same.
Maybe that should be the focus of your next article. I think it is slightly more important than the issues you focus on.
