The Snowball_ Warren Buffett and the Business of Life - Alice Schroeder [532]
40. Above a 4% to 6% “bogey.” He benchmarked himself against the rate of long-term government bonds, telling his partners that if he could not do better than that, he should not get paid. The wide range of profit-sharing reflected the varying level of risk Warren was taking. In the partnerships that paid him the most, he also had unlimited liability to pay back losses.
41. Buffett was charging 25% of the partnership’s appreciation in excess of 6%.
42. Meg Mueller, in an interview, recalls its size relative to other houses on the street at the time.
43. Reynolds was a city councilman. “Sam Reynolds Home Sold to Warren Buffett,” Omaha World-Herald, February 9, 1958. “Buffett’s Folly” was referred to in a letter to Jerry Orans, March 12, 1958, cited in Roger Lowenstein, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
44. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.
45. Interview with Howie Buffett.
46. Pyelonephritis, sometimes associated with pregnancy.
47. As quoted in Lowenstein, Buffett. Billig is now deceased.
48. Interview with Charlie Munger.
49. In interviews, Dr. Marcia Angle recalls the TV being acquired in the late 1950s and how much it impressed her father. Kelsey Flower and Meg Mueller recall its impact on the neighborhood.
50. Interviews with Howie Buffett, Peter Buffett, Susie Buffett Jr.
51. Interview with Thama Friedman. Laurette Eves was the third partner.
52. Interview with Howie Buffett.
53. Kuhlken had introduced Cowin to Buffett in 1951 on one of Buffett’s trips back to New York after his graduation from Columbia.
54. From Buffett’s eulogy for Cowin.
55. From Joyce Cowin’s eulogy for Cowin.
56. Marshall Weinberg, Tom Knapp, Ed Anderson, Sandy Gottesman, Buffett, and others contributed to this portrait of Cowin.
57. “He lent me unsecured. A dollar of short-term loss offset two dollars of long-term gain for tax purposes, and you could buy a mutual fund that was going to pay a long-term capital-gains dividend and redeem it immediately thereafter to offset a long-term gain going into the end of the year. I bought a combination of long-term gain and short-term loss, which, though equal in amount, had different effects on your tax return. It was all legit then; you can’t do it anymore. It probably saved me a thousand dollars. Boy, it was huge,” says Buffett.
58. Interview with Joyce Cowin.
59. This was an experimental town built to house 1,800 families in low-cost units. Numerous government properties were auctioned off after World War II. “House Passes Bill to Speed Greenbelt Sale,” Washington Post, April 14, 1949; “U.S. Sells Ohio Town It Built in Depression,” New York Times, December 7, 1949; “Greenbelt, Md., Sale Extended for 30 Days,” Washington Post, May 31, 1952.
60. Chuck Peterson paraphrased this quote from the version of the story he heard. It is probably correct in substance, but, as with all quotes recalled from memory, the exact wording is in doubt.
Chapter 23
1. “A. C. Munger, Lawyer, Dies,” Omaha World-Herald, July 1, 1959.
2. The obituary of Henry A. Homan, son of George W. Homan, in the Omaha World-Herald, March 22, 1907, mentions that Homan, who was twelve years older than Judge Munger, was a close friend of the judge. The Homan and Buffett sides of the families, however, were not close.
3. “33 Years a Federal Judge,” Omaha World-Herald, March 12, 1939.
4. Charles Munger letter to Katharine Graham, November 13, 1974. When Judge Munger died, this same aunt Ufie (Ruth) reportedly made the bizarre claim that he must have been taken by God’s grace because of a mistake he’d made recently in arithmetic. She said she knew “he couldn’t stay on after that.”
5. Lowe, Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000. Lowe’s biography, which is based on extensive