Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) is set to take off. The news that uberinvestor Warren Buffett’s holding company would take over Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) in a $44 billion “all-in wager on the economic future of the United States” has made headlines around the world. Everyone says it’s Buffett’s biggest deal. Read More

I’m going to tell you how to save some money. It’s an easy fix. You probably won’t notice anything other than the savings. It has to do with your icemaker. If your house is anything like mine, there are certain sounds you’ve learned to ignore. My dishwasher, for example, makes… Read More

Bill Gates owns about 700 million shares of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) — 713.1 million to be exact. His cache of Microsoft stock is worth a tidy $18.7 billion. Every time the price of Microsoft moves up a penny, Gates’ wealth grows by $7.1 million. Read More

I have a game I like to play. A little con. It generally involves two pigeons. One is a friend, the other is Bill Gates. It never fails. I’m always amazed at how little people know about financial information. When I show someone the SEC’s site, for instance, he or… Read More

As the world trained its eyes on Copenhagen last Friday to learn the location of the 2016 Olympic Games, I sat in a bar in Washington, D.C., with an old friend. We were waiting for the results of a different contest. The race we were interested in has far larger… Read More

I bought a pair of noise-canceling headphones from an airport vending machine. When I put them on and turned the switch, the dim from the airport disappeared. After my flight took off, I put the headphones back on. The hum of the jet engines evaporated. Every investor ought to own… Read More

Crude oil has risen above $72 a barrel, but cheap oil just got a little cheaper. Recently, I looked at the value of the world’s leading will double its crude reserves, and yet its stock has only risen about +8%. #-ad_banner-#Now, admittedly, Anadarko will have to spend some money to… Read More

I’m pretty sure I’ve discovered the next winning “green” tech company. Not only does it have serious technology to bring to the table, it has the most powerful financial force on the planet backing it up. This company, which is developing the batteries that will be used in the next-generation… Read More

I’m consistently amazed at the ability of smart, successful people to get things totally wrong. I find myself in slack-jawed awe of how just plain clueless investors can be. The supply of intelligence is finite, someone once said, but the population is growing. That makes me smile. I don’t grin… Read More

Even as the S&P 500 Index sits at a multi-year valuation peak (see chart), some sectors aren’t faring as well. Any investor who watches the news could guess that financial companies are among the laggards. Many bank shares,… Read More