ForGave Collections

Buffett began by welcoming the students with an array of Coca-Cola products. ("Berkshire owns a little over 8% of Coke, so we get the profit on one out of 12 cans. I don't care whether you drink it, but just open the cans, if you will.") He then plunged into weightier matters: Before we start in on questions, I would like to tell you about one thing going on recently. It may have some meaning to you if you're still being taught efficient-market theory, which was standard procedure 25 years ago. But we've had a recent illustration of why the theory is misguided . In the past seven or eight or nine weeks, Berkshire has built up a position in auction-rate securities [bonds whose interest rates are periodically reset at auction; for more, see box on page 74] of about $4 billion. And what we have seen there is really quite phenomenal. Every day we get bid lists. The fascinating thing is that on these bid lists, frequently the same credit will appear more than once. He...

作者：汕头人民饲政府 提交日期：2008-4-6 12:54:00 　　范蠡三迁三成名，却垂史无传；西施“莫须有”，然芳名永垂。何以铸就了这么一桩奇案，还望能者释之! 　　范蠡，原本是个谋略过人的军事家，治国有方的政治家，理财得道的企业家，然而，他却被后来的舞文弄墨者们，特别是当代影视剧的炮制者们歪曲了。留在一般人心目中的范蠡，总和那位“中国第一美人西施”联系在一起，认为他不过是在吴越之战中使了条美人计而已，他之能流传千古，完全是沾了西施的光。这样的歪曲，让一些认真的研究者们大抱不平。长篇传记文学《范蠡》一书的作者夏廷献先生，在该书里就颇为不平地指出：兴一国，灭一国，号称“兵圣”的孙武没有做到，号称“智圣”的诸葛亮也没有做到，这两位都是“出师未捷身先死”，但范蠡做到了。他不仅创造了以弱胜强的光辉战例，还善于保存自己，直到古稀之年寿终正寝。夏先生还进一步指出，范蠡之所以被后人歪曲，是因为任何一部正史上都没有他的传记，连司马迁这样伟大的史学家，也只在《越王勾践世家》和《货殖列传》中附带提到了范蠡的一些事迹。范蠡无传，因为他犯了古人为官的三大忌：一是他不愚忠，功成之后便甩手不干，离开重用他的越王独个儿逍遥去了；二是不清贫，倘若功成之后要逍遥就如张良那样当个隐者也行，但他偏去做生意，“士农工商”，干了文人最不耻的商业一行，就连大文豪苏东坡论及此事时，也遗憾而又激愤地认为范蠡实在不该去经商；三是生活不检点，居然把大美人西施弄跑了，独享艳福，虽然这位西施在任何一本正史上都查不到，是个不知何时何地冒出来的其真实存在要打疑问号的人物。 　　那么，范蠡是个什么样的人呢?夏先生的书虽然全面却多了份文学性，就让我们根据司马迁老先生留下的蛛丝马迹，再参阅其他的史料来追寻他吧。 　　范蠡，字少伯，由于正史无传，生卒年月不详。但有作者认为，范蠡出生于鲁昭公六年、楚灵王五年，即公元前536年。他是春秋末期楚国宛(今河南南阳)三户(今河南淅川西北)人。范蠡虽是楚人，而且在楚颇有贤才之名，但当时楚国政治腐败，范蠡不被重用，有贤才又不被重用，为了逃避可能的政治迫害，范蠡便假装疯癫，直到楚平王时，宛令(当时未置县，相当于宛县县令)文种才看重他的贤才。文种也是个极有本事的人，但在楚国只当了个宛令，就好比后来的刘备初不识庞统，而让庞统去当了一个小小的县令一样，文种自然不安于楚国对他这样大材小用的待遇。范蠡自...

THE DAILY RECKONING - 07/04/2008 You don’t have to be a rabid libertarian or Marxist historian with leather patches on his jacket to look at the current world banking crisis and ask "Cui bono...?" "Who benefits?" as the criminal lawyer demands of the jury. And curiously enough, at first glance at least, the lawyers look set to clean up once more. "Investors and their lawyers filed 70 securities-fraud class actions in the first quarter," reports Conde Nast's Portfolio.com, "almost the same number that were filed in the first half of 2007, according to NERA Economic Consulting, which tracks the filing of these complaints." Twenty-six of the 70 new cases in 2008 to date are linked to the sub-prime disaster, with Bear Stearns cited alongside J.P.Morgan, Lehman Brothers, T.D.Ameritrade Morgan Stanley and 14 other firms. "The increase in filings continues a trend that began in the second half of last year," says Portfolio.com, quoting NER...