Warren Buffett's Love-Hate Relationship with Derivatives
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By yuezhang | April 2013
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Q1. In his 2002 letter to shareholders, what does Warren Buffett seem to fear most about financial derivatives?Warren Buffett has long been reflected as one of the voices behind the massive land of poor business decisions even though he has won best reputation in investing. He is known for his tough talks, absolute honesty and, in some cases, blunt nature. As the chairman of the board of Berkshire Hathaway, he was concerned that he projected a significant threat to the future of business in general. He states that derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction or, in other words, main factors for creation of a time bomb. Financial institutions sell billions of these investments to customers as a way to cope with market risks, but these derivatives may also provide a treacherous incentive to false accounting. He goes further to say that these instruments call for money to change hands in the future with the amount determined by one or more items like interest rates and stock prices. He then points out that these investments often invite a terrific deal of credit which may in turn lead to fall of an institution or corporate meltdown like the plunge of the hedge fund of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. Making errors in the derivative business has never been symmetrical. According to Eiteman, Moffett & Stonehill (2009), they have favored either the CEO who is to record profits, or the trader, or both.Q2. In his 2007 letter to shareholders, what does Warren Buffett admit that he and Charlie had done?Buffet suggests that the Vice Chairman, Charlie Munger, also views these derivatives as time bombs set for both parties who deal with them and the economic
By yuezhang | April 2013
Zoom InZoom OutPage 1 of 2
Q1. In his 2002 letter to shareholders, what does Warren Buffett seem to fear most about financial derivatives?Warren Buffett has long been reflected as one of the voices behind the massive land of poor business decisions even though he has won best reputation in investing. He is known for his tough talks, absolute honesty and, in some cases, blunt nature. As the chairman of the board of Berkshire Hathaway, he was concerned that he projected a significant threat to the future of business in general. He states that derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction or, in other words, main factors for creation of a time bomb. Financial institutions sell billions of these investments to customers as a way to cope with market risks, but these derivatives may also provide a treacherous incentive to false accounting. He goes further to say that these instruments call for money to change hands in the future with the amount determined by one or more items like interest rates and stock prices. He then points out that these investments often invite a terrific deal of credit which may in turn lead to fall of an institution or corporate meltdown like the plunge of the hedge fund of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. Making errors in the derivative business has never been symmetrical. According to Eiteman, Moffett & Stonehill (2009), they have favored either the CEO who is to record profits, or the trader, or both.Q2. In his 2007 letter to shareholders, what does Warren Buffett admit that he and Charlie had done?Buffet suggests that the Vice Chairman, Charlie Munger, also views these derivatives as time bombs set for both parties who deal with them and the economic