Nor does he, in classic Graham style, look to sell holdings when they catch up with the market.

Buffett still follows the Graham precepts of careful analysis, but it’s been years since Buffett has bought stocks that, by Graham’s standards, are cheap in terms of assets, earnings or cash flow. You figure out when they are cheap by careful balance sheet analysis. The Omaha phenomenon began as pure Ben Graham-buy cheap stocks at giveaway prices if possible and sell them when they are no longer cheap. To understand Munger’s influence on Buffett you have to recall the gradual evolution of the latter’s investment philosophy. He sees the essence of everything before you even finish the sentence.” In 1978 Munger was named vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and in 1983 chairman of Wesco Financial Corp., a finance company that’s 80% controlled by Berkshire. “Charlie has the best 30-second mind in the world. Charlie Munger is the quintessential realist against whom Buffett tests his ideas. “I probably haven’t talked to anyone on Wall Street one hundredth of the times I speak to Charlie,” says Buffett.

Underneath, these are two minds in almost uncanny sync. Munger comes on more arrogant and erudite, while Buffett comes on modest and folksy.

Munger and Buffett complement each other beautifully. He never claimed he did, but so overwhelming has his public presence become that few people realize that for more than 30 years Buffett has had a not-so-silent partner who is as much the creator of the Berkshire Hathaway investment philosophy as is the master himself.Ĭharles Munger is a 72-year-old lawyer and investor, a curmudgeon who lives in Los Angeles, 1,300 miles and a two-hour time difference from Buffett’s headquarters in Omaha, Neb. WARREN BUFFETT, probably the greatest investor in modern American history, did not do it alone. Fondiller The Not-So-Silent Partner Meet Charlie Munger, the Los Angeles lawyer who converted Warren Buffett from an old- fashioned Graham value investor to the ultimate buy-and-hold value strategist.

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