Buysiders.com » interview

Easter bonus: Michael Lewis

IP — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:26:16 +0000

Update (April 6th, 2010): Please see inside for Mike Burry’s op-ed in the New York Times ranting on the Fed (Greenspan specifically) for not seeing the crisis develop.

On tour to promote his book “The Big Short“, Michael Lewis interviews have been popping up all over the Internet. You can find some of the best inside. Required reading is this excerpt from the book at Vanity Fair’s website. Great stuff, we especially liked this bit: “I hated discussing ideas with investors,” (Mike Burry said), “because I then become a Defender of the Idea, and that influences your thought process. Once you became an idea’s defender, you had a harder time changing your mind about it.”

Have a great Easter Sunday!

UPDATE: Mike Burry wrote an op-ed in the New York Times recently on how he saw the crisis and why the Fed should have seen it too. We especially like this bit: “I demanded daily collateral settlement — if positions moved in our favor, I wanted cash posted to our account the next day. This was something I knew that Goldman Sachs and other derivatives dealers did not demand of AAA-rated A.I.G.”. Not only did he get the intellectual challenge right, but he also followed through quite well in terms of execution. Impressive enough, and all by himself.

VIDEOS

Bloomberg Television interview (42:37):

CBS’ 60 Minutes segments:

- Inside the collapse, part 1:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

- Inside the collapse, part 2:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

- Wall Street misfit (on Mike Burry):

Watch CBS News Videos Online

- The $8.4 Bi bet:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

The CEO educator

IP — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:47:40 +0000

Sometimes we’ll publish “older” stuff as part of what we like to call “weekend catch-up reading”. This time it’s a Fortune Magazine interview with Joel I. Klen, New York City’s school chancellor and former CEO of Bertelsmann’s USA operations. He’s best know as the Dept. of Justice’s anti-trust czar that sued Microsoft, so it’s telling that Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over US$150mm to the revolutionary efforts Mr. Klein is spearheading. This is more than just about Education and should appeal to anyone interested in improving public services, evidence-based management, dealing with unions, overcoming difficulties, etc. – so enjoy.

BBC’s special about Warren Buffett

IP — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:37:39 +0000

BBC aired a special on Warren Buffett on Monday, October 26th. The star-struck BBC reporter doesn’t manage great questions for Buffett, but the accompanying videos are better. Of special interest is the Don Graham interview: a man who has been around Buffett for decades – and he’s still awed by him. His description of how (and why) Berkshire is so different from the “average American business” is one of the best compliments Mr. Buffett could get.

By the way, it’s downright funny when you realize how many times Don Graham uses the expression “it’s hard to describe…” when trying to explain the differences between Warren and Berkshire to other managers and companies.

Bill Gates says that he was a software engineer when he first met Buffett, who in his mind was an “investor”. He was amazed when Buffett asked him business questions about IBM, HP, how was competition like, how did the companies price its products and so on… “Warren’s investing was just an outcome of having this incredible model about business and business values“, he says.

And the David “Sandy” Gottesman part is shorter and lighter but worth the while.