The Snowball_ Warren Buffett and the Business of Life - Alice Schroeder [585]
17. One of Buffett’s main points was that companies—many of which had been taking gains from surpluses out of their pension plans—were irresponsibly using unrealistic rates of return assumptions and would have to adjust these to reality, which would show the plans to be less well funded or even underfunded.
18. Herbert Stein was an American Enterprise Institute fellow and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under Richard Nixon, a member of the board of contributors of the Wall Street Journal, and an economics professor at University of Virginia. He is known for the quote “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop,” and was father to financial writer and actor Ben Stein.
19. As quoted in “Buffett Warns Sun Valley Against Internet Stocks,” Bloomberg, July 13, 2001.
20. Vicente Fox worked for Coca-Cola for fifteen years, starting as a route supervisor in 1964, then being promoted ten years later to president of its Mexican, and ultimately its Latin American, operations.
21. Interview with Midge Patzer.
22. Interview with Don Graham.
23. Dr. Griffith R. Harsh, IV, Director, Surgical Neuro-Oncology Program at Stanford University Medical School.
24. Interview with Kathleen Cole.
25. Interviews with Bill Gates, Peter Buffett, Howie Buffett.
26. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.
27. Interviews with Susie Buffett Jr., Don Graham.
28. Karlyn Barker, “Capacity Crowd Expected at Funeral; Schlesinger, Bradlee, Kissinger, Relatives Among Eulogists,” Washington Post, July 22, 2001.
29. Paul Farhi, “Close Enough to See: TV Coverage Captures Small, Telling Moments,” Washington Post, July 24, 2001; Steve Twomey, “A Celebrated Life: Thousands Honor Katharine Graham at the Cathedral,” Washington Post, July 24, 2001; Mary Leonard, “Thousands Pay Tribute to Washington Post’s Katharine Graham,” Boston Globe, July 24, 2001.
30. Karlyn Barker, “Capacity Crowd Expected at Funeral; Schlesinger, Bradlee, Kissinger, Relatives Among Eulogists.”
31. Libby Copeland, “Kay Graham’s Last Party: At Her Georgetown Home, A Diverse Group Gathers,” Washington Post, July 24, 2001.
32. The family sold the house shortly after Graham’s death.
Chapter 56
1. Interview with Herbert Allen.
2. “The Hut-Sut Song” by Horace Heidt. Words and music by Leo V. Killion, Ted McMichael, and Jack Owens.
3. The event benefited the Boys & Girls Clubs of Omaha, Omaha Children’s Museum, Girls Inc., and the Omaha Theater Company for Young People. Over ten years it raised approximately $10 million.
4. Hamlisch was the first person to win three Academy Awards at once, in all three music categories, for the song “The Way We Were”(with co-writers Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman), the score to the movie The Way We Were (1973), and the adaptation of Scott Joplin’s ragtime music for The Sting (1973).
5. Interview with Devon Spurgeon.
6. Buffett does not recall the specifics of this call but thinks it probably occurred. The source is Joe Brandon at General Re.
7. Grace Shim, “Warren Buffett, Others Speak About Terrorism at Omaha, Neb., Event,” Omaha World-Herald, September 12, 2001.
8. Buffett recalled this, and said, “I think somebody even may have bought a car just because they ran out of rental cars.”
9. According to “Killtown’s: Where Was Warren Buffett on 9/11?” (www.killtown.911review.org/buffett.htm), referencing rushlimbaugh.com from July 5, 2005.
10. Interview with Bob Nardelli.
11. Interview with Tony Pesavento.
12. Buffett told the author this in 2001, shortly after the terrorist attack.
13. The term “unforeseeable” as an explanation for large losses was virtually universal after 9/11 in the insurance industry.
14. Grace Shim, “Warren Buffett, Others Speak About Terrorism at Omaha, Neb., Event.”
15. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.
16. This initial estimate was revised to $2.4 billion in the December 31 annual report.
17. Charles R. Morris, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown. New York: Public Affairs, 2008.
18. Leading to reforms such as not allowing