The Essays of Warren Buffett is a collection of writings from Buffett to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway over the last decades. There is a new edition out which might contain updated material, but this edition covers writings from the 80s till the first internet bubble. Lawrence Cunningham chooses a variety of topics and associated writings to give the reader an impression of how Warren Buffett has seen the market, investing and the variety of agency issues associated with making decisions in financial markets. The book is filled with intuitive insight and will always be relevant and all the more useful in periods when pricing and economics become disassociated.
The Essays of Warren Buffett touches on many topics. The topics included are governance investing, alternatives, common stock, acquisitions, valuation, accounting, tax and some history. Buffett starts by discussing alignment of interest and describes how him and Charlie Mungers financial fate are squarely determined by the absolute performance of Berkshire stock and how they are first and foremost shareholders. They then discuss governance structures that they approve of and characterize a bunch of structures which are weak. Though the writing is out of date with the monstrosity of packages awarded to executives today for no measurable improvement to the businesses they run, the spirit of their concerns remains more valid than ever. Boards of directors should be forced to read this to be reminded of their role. The major topic is of course investing. The authors describe a host of opportunities that they consider from long term investing identification, how to deal with the vagaries of the market and how to think about building portfolios. At the end of the day the messages are clear, one should be disciplined, use the markets emotional waves for better entry prices. Buying great businesses at fair prices is better than buying fair businesses at great prices and so on. There are many gems in the writing. There is a collection of writings on alternatives to common stock investing, including junk bonds and pref shares and convertibles. This is somewhat dated as finance has gone off the deep end embracing financial engineering without economic purpose. Nonetheless a framework for thinking about alterative payoff profiles remains insightful, though less relevant than the principles of investment chapter. The authors then discuss common stocks and the associated risks and rewards. It would be have been fascinating to have old valuation based investors transported into 2020 where stock splits elevated stocks by massive amounts on the biggest of companies (the consequence of how efficient markets are no doubt... I would love to hear Fama rationalize that phenomenon as efficient). The chapter on acquisitions remains relevant and discuss agency problems that remain issues today. They also discuss buybacks reminding the reader what a rational buyback policy should be based on rather than some of the behaviors undertaken today by management incentivized to raise the stock price above their management option strikes. The chapters on valuation and accounting are fantastic. They remind the reader what common sense but simultaneously deep perspectives are on thinking about valuation and thinking about how to think about accounting and real earnings power of businesses. These remain relevant for every market and give a framework for considering intangibles, the foundation of many modern tech giants.
At the time of this review, markets have gone into full bubble mode in many pockets. One only has to read a book like this to be reminded that, this isn't the first time and to participate rather than tread with caution will lead to regret. The writings give a timeless grounding to the thoughtful investor and this will remain full of gems for decades to come.
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Do not buy from this seller!!
This book came used and was supposed to be brand new. I’m very disappointed.
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2021
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- LLethurReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2012
A must have for all investors
