Streetwise
Lauren Rudd
Sunday, July 11,
2010
The Rudd Version of Warren Buffett's Charity Lunch
Ok, I will admit that I have been a bit critical of the
auction carried out each year for a lunch with Warren Buffett. The winner and
seven friends get to pick the brain of the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway over a
steak lunch in Manhattan at Smith & Wollensky, which picks up the tab and
donates funds to host the event each year.
This year a bidder has agreed to pay $2.63 million for the
privilege, topping the previous record $2.11 million paid in 2008 by Zhao
Danyang, a Hong Kong investor. Wealth manager Salida Capital of Toronto won with
a $1.68 million bid in 2009.
If you contribute seven figures to charity, you are to be
commended. Yet, I have always had this uneasy feeling that the lunch winners
hoped to gain more than just the good feeling that comes from donating of a
substantial chunk of disposable income to a worthwhile cause.
Surely anyone successful enough to have amassed the resources
required for such generosity must realize that Buffett is not about to let slip
some tidbit of information that would put him in violation of the full
disclosure rule. Furthermore, any expectation of uncovering some previously
undisclosed key to Buffett’s prodigious investment skill would be naïve to the
point of ridiculous.
Buffett does not harbor some holy grail. He simply uses a
modicum of common sense, backed by solid fundamental analysis and a very large
piggy bank that enables him to deftly put in place a desired investment with
little fanfare and generally with no need of financing.
Every year in his annual letter to shareholders, Buffett
reports his holdings, discusses their merits and shortcomings, and details why
they were selected. A number of web sites offer stock screens using a so-called
Buffett investment criteria. And his investment methodology and selection
criteria have been the subject of countless books and articles.
Yet, I have been taken to task repeatedly for being narrow
minded and directing supposedly “humorous wit” to cast disparaging annotations
upon those good hearted philanthropists. The implication being that I was too
dense to see unadulterated idolatry at its finest. Isn’t there a phrase
somewhere that refers to “worshiping false idols?”
One reader struck a really low blow, stating that nobody
would pay a dollar to have lunch with me. Actually, I am not sure if I would pay
a dollar to have lunch with me either. However, in self-defense I have raised
thousands of dollars for various charities and other non-profit organizations
through countless talks and appearances, and always pro bono publico.
So am I overly cynical? After 40 years on Wall Street, I do
find it difficult to believe in altruism. Egos and puffery run rampant and there
is an insatiable desire for personal profit. That is the Wall Street I know.
Remember Sanford Weill, the former CEO of the now infamous
Citigroup? He lined the walls leading to his office with self-adulating copies
of articles, each heralding his genius. Barron’s, a respected business weekly,
once wrote that on Wall Street success or failure is measured only by how much
money you make or lose. Does any of this have a familiar ring?
This brings us to my attempt at redemption, salvation, and to
show that I am not overly cynical. Donate $500 to the charity of your choice and
I will treat you and a companion to a “Four Star” dinner. During dinner we can
discuss my best investment ideas and advice, based on my 40 years of Wall Street
experience, for the purpose of increasing your investment acumen and success.
Are there any conditions? Yes, but only a couple. Initially
the offer is open to anyone with a receipt showing a donation made after July 1
of this year. If you are not a resident of Sarasota, FL, and I know most of my
readers are not, a mutually agreeable location and date will be determined.
Of course the only free publicity you are likely to receive
is a tip of the hat in my column. However, you just might come out ahead
financially and I know your favorite charity will.
