“He pretty much does anything you ask him to,” Antonio Espinosa, an MBA candidate at Notre Dame told the Wall Street Journal today of Warren Buffett. Espinosa was specifically referring to the time-honored photoshoots Buffett stars in several times a year after having lunch (chicken parmesan and root beer floats) with business students and driving them around in his Cadillac. Where the willingness to do “anything” comes into play is after taking a “serious shot,” suitable for featuring in the family newsletter, when Buffett does a “funny pose” with each participant, who is granted free reign on direction. Among the most recent group, there was a junior at Northern Arizona University who requested WB act like he was proposing to her (“Please take me. Please have me,” he begged); a Northwestern finance major who asked a classmate to “help her tug on Mr. Buffett, one woman on each side, so it would look like they were fighting over him for a date”; another Wildcat who “asked Mr. Buffett to mimic the famous pose from ‘Home Alone,’ by putting hands to his head and making a silent scream”; and a second year at University of Toronto’s b-school, who told him “I’m going to whisper something in your ear– pretend I’m saying something very exciting!” (“he started making these noises, like “Oooh!”‘). Unfortunately, not everything always goes according to plan. Continue reading »
kids
You know who is the fucking rake? Underperforming kids who don’t meet their quotas around the officehouse because they’re messing around doing god know’s whatstandard kid stuff rather than keeping their eyes on the ball. This is particularly grating, the Journal reports today, for Type A parents who can’t understand how they gave birth to children who have no appreciation for making quarterly revenue targets. Take Ron Mattocks’ employ-I mean kids, for example. Three out of five of them bust their asses to get shit done, having realized at a young age that life? Is one big performance review, and you’d better deliver. Then you have Avery and Sawyer, 8 and 7 years-old, respectively. Not even sure where to start with these guys.
Mattocks, a former real-estate sales executive and Army captain, is a Type A personality. He is ambitious, drives himself to achieve and usually succeeds. One job that really tests his limits, though, is raising two laid-back Type B kids. When his stepdaughter Avery, 8 years old, or his son Sawyer, 7, starts to daydream and wander away from a chore,* Mr. Mattocks occasionally erupts. “The first thing out of my mouth is, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ ” he says.
Oh, these two slackers chap Mr. Mattocks’ hide something fierce and while he’d love nothing more than to fire them without pay like, yesterday,** their lack of ambition is nothing compared to their spirit animal across the pond.
Imagine, if you will, that you are London-based portfolio manager Scott Krase. Your initiative and work ethic have translated to tangible results. You married Christine, “a teacher, violinist and former competitive swimmer who earned straight A’s through grad school,” and your models indicated that together, you’d produced a more than acceptably motivated child. And then this happened. Continue reading »
The more college loans and credit card debt that young adults age 18 to 27 have, the higher their self esteem — and the more control they feel they have over their lives. They tend to view debt positively, rather than as a burden. [NYT, related: drug highs vs debt highs]
Last night was Bill Ackman and Whitney Tilson’s big poker tournament to benefit their charity, REACH, which gives inner-city high school students academic support and scholarships for passing AP exams. Some of the kids were there to tell their stories, which was adorable, and the event raised money for a great cause, which is nice. Humanity and whatnot. But enough about that. Who won big (prizes — and would’ve taken home cash were the evening not about the children)? Continue reading »
When you’re a big time hedge fund manager, it’s important to have outlets through which to blow off the stress of the markets. Some buy art. Some play golf. Others fuck hookers. A very small group write books, usually related to what they do all day. Crescendo Partners founder Eric Rosenfeld knew he wanted to add author to his list of occupations but he wasn’t much interested in talking about the money making game. He wanted to tell a richer, more meaningful story. A story about a woman with a huge ass, and a dirty little secret. Continue reading »
Everytime we try and get off the Berns Beat this guy reels us back in. Not content to let Raj Rajaratnam and his little insider trading case dominate the limelight, Madoff sees your “Sri Lankan scandal” and raises you a “I eat Italian food prepared by a pervert.” The Daily News reports that inside the Butler, NC prison he calls home, the Ponz Master bunks with a 21 year-old drug dealer and eats pizza “prepared by a child molester.” That should be enough to hold our attention but in case you were considering spending your morning discussing the implications of Raj-Raj winding down his fund, Big Big goes on:
New additions to a lawsuit against the jailed Ponzi schemer charge that he presided over an office so fueled by the drug that it was known as the “North Pole.”
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