Streetwise

Lauren Rudd

Sunday, June 17, 2012

So, You Want to Have Dinner

Ok, I will admit that I have been a bit critical of the auction carried out each year for a lunch with Warren Buffett where the highest bidder and seven friends receive a private audience with the “Master.” Lunch is donated by Smith & Wollensky, along with a charitable contribution, for the privilege of hosting the event and receiving the inevitable publicity.

The opening bid this year was $25,000, whereupon 106 bids were placed as 10 individuals battled it out. An anonymous online bidder forked over a record $3,456,789 to break bread with the investment guru. This year’s winning bid far exceeded the 2011 winning bid of $2,626,411. All proceeds will be donated to the Glide Foundation, an organization that fights poverty and assists the homeless.

Anyone who contributes seven figures to charity is to be commended, no argument. Yet, I have always had this uneasy feeling that the winners hoped to gain more than just the good feeling that comes from donating 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 that when combined with a very large piggy bank enables him to deftly put in place a desired investment with little fanfare and generally with no need of financing.

Furthermore, every year in his annual letter to shareholders, Buffett reports his holdings, discusses their merits and shortcomings and details why they were selected. Moreover, a number of investment web sites claim to utilize the so-called Buffett selection criteria, a methodology that has been meticulously analyzed in countless books and articles.

Meanwhile, I have been taken to task repeatedly for being narrow minded and directing supposedly “humorous wit” to cast disparaging annotations upon good hearted philanthropists. The implication being that I was too dense to see unadulterated idolatry at its finest.

A really low blow came when a reader wrote in saying 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. 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.

Am I being overly cynical? After 40 years on Wall Street, I do find it difficult to believe in altruism. Egos and puffery run rampant on the Street, along with an insatiable desire for personal gain. Barron’s once wrote that success or failure on Wall Street is measured only by how much money you make or lose. That is the Wall Street I know.

So here is my attempt at redemption and salvation. After skipping the subject last year, I am once again going to step up the plate, no pun intended. Be among the first 10 people who notify me that they have donated $750 to a registered charity and I will treat you and a companion to dinner at a local restaurant of your choice.

During dinner we can discuss my best investment ideas (many unpublished) for the sole purpose of increasing your investment acumen and success, along with any other topic that comes to mind. Make it a $1,000 and after dinner we will take in a performance at the Asolo Repertory Theatre. If you are not a resident of Sarasota, FL, and I know many of my readers are not, we will meet at mutually agreeable local venue(s). Buffett eat your heart out.