Subject: Re: Fortune piece on WEB/ Berkshire
Has Buffett picked a successor as superbly as he picks stocks? After 60 years, it’s the hardest call Berkshire’s shareholders have ever had to make.


If one has confidence in Warren it's a very easy call to make.

I don’t think so. After 60 years of wildly successful stock picking (and investing capital in general), I am confident that Buffett can pick businesses with good prospects and low risk of blowing up.

Picking people who will have this ability is a completely different skill set from doing it oneself. Although I am cautiously optimistic about Abel, I think Buffett’s track record in picking collaborators is much less impressive. I am thinking of David Sokol, the crooked Haslams of Flying J notoriety, the 3G Capital guys, Gen Re’s Ronald Ferguson and Joseph Brandon, and AIG’s Maurice Greenberg and his son Evan at Chubb, and I have probably missed a few. My examples mostly involve integrity and not capital allocation skills, but I think the point remains - doing something well oneself is not the same as choosing someone else who can do it.

Regards, DTB