Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist

by Roger Lowenstein

Buffett chose to ignore this view and stay within “the realm of his specialty.” He could not size up how the country’s problems would influence the shares of the Washington Post. His genius was in not trying. Civilization is too variegated, its dynamics far too rich, for one to foresee its tides, let alone the waves and wavelets that affect securities prices. Wars would be won and lost; prosperity would be hailed as everlasting and bemoaned as ne’er recurring, as would politics, hemlines, and the weather enjoy their seasons. Analyzing them was Wall Street’s great game—and its great distraction. In its floating salon, everything was interesting and nothing was certain—the President, the economy, the effect of OPEC on sales of Pepsi-Cola. None of these would substitute for critically evaluating an individual stock. When you purchased a share of Washington Post stock, ultimately you would not be rewarded on the basis of whether war broke out in the Middle East. You were buying nothing more, nothing less, than a share of the business—a claim on the future profits of its publishing and television assets. Yet if you knew what the Post, or any one business, was worth, it rang with the clarity of a single note. That was the sound Buffett strained for. Nothing else mattered, least of all the thousand cacophonous voices debating the future. Stein was searching for a glimpse of “more stable and anticipatable times,” but Buffett was unwilling to wait. As he had once told his partners,...