When they criticize him, which they do only mildly, Buffett’s operating managers tend to think him too rational and demanding about numbers. No one can quite imagine him paying up for a small “seed” business with a possible future but no present. Buffett and Munger are not in the least suffused with animal spirits, and they do not even consider making discretionary capital expenditures—say for flashy offices—that aren’t going to do them any economic good.
