I think we have one big advantage. A lot of other people are trying to be brilliant, we’re just trying to stay rational.”
Charlie Munger, Omaha may 6, 2017
Introduction[1]
The area of Omaha, neuralgic point of the ‘corn belt’, stands on the largest United States aquifer. It is not surprising that Nebraska is an agricultural State which, for years, rivaled powerful futures markets in Chicago as the main Mall for livestock. It’s a State away from sources of power from Washington and Wall Street, with a sound economy, calm and familiar atmosphere. Nebraska offers a powerful contrast with the image that tend to project the large coastal cities of United States, both decadent image that is usually associated with the American Midwest, showing that between both coasts United States houses a varied and rich mosaic.
In Omaha, the most important city of this State with little more than one million inhabitants, is where is the corporate headquarters of Bershire Hathaway, the investment vehicle of Warren Buffett (86) already become a living legend in the world of investment and a powerful reference at global level.
Both Buffett and Charlie Munger (93) are two authentic rare bird, far from the stereotypes that sometimes is –(mejor dicho, se quiere proyectar) – industry. The secret of both commonly recognized today by all, has been the great skill of bet by a way of investing, a method and some values, and staying the course.
Both are natural Omaha, educated in a public school a few miles from where today the busy meeting of shareholders is held, both accumulating extensive experience dedicated to the investment: 54 years since Buffett will take the reins of BRK, then $ 19 action, actions that today have a value equal to $ 245,000.
This continued and successful return in the long term, combined with clear and recognizable, investment values that have generated school (already initiated before b[2]y Benjamin Graham), has made them true references not only within the world of investment, but also in the field of business management (as good ‘value investor’, for Buffett in the end companies are people and good governance (, one of the obsessions of the Oracle of Omaha[3]).
[1] This document has been developed by Luis Torras (@TorrasLuis), Panda Agriculture & Water Fund, FI analyst.
[2] Roger Lowenstein, Buffett. The Biography, Duckworth, 2008, pp. 36-59. See Benjamin Graham the intelligent investor, Deusto, 2016.
[3] Yefei Lu, Inside the Investments of Warren Buffett, Columbia Business School, 2016, pp. 260-62.
Peregrinación a Omaha