Dear Mr. Buffett

Janet M. Tavakoli is the President of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a consulting firm to financial institutions, institutional investors, and hedge funds. She is frequently quoted in the business press, including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the New York Times, and was noted as "The Cassandra of Credit Derivatives" by BusinessWeek, identifying the impending crisis years before others. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, CBS Evening News, Bloomberg TV, First Business Morning News, Fox News, Fox Business News, ABC, BBC, and 60 Minutes. Ms. Tavakoli is the author of several professional finance volumes, and was an adjunct associate professor at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, where she taught derivatives.

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Chapter 1: An Unanswered Invitation 1

Chapter 2: Lunch with Warren 9

Chapter 3: The Prairie Princes versus the Princes of Darkness 31

Chapter 4: The Insatiable Curiosity to Know Nothing Worth Knowing (Oscar Wilde Was Right) 41

Chapter 5: MAD Mortgages—The “Great” Against the Powerless 67

Chapter 6: Shell Games (Beware of Geeks Bearing Grifts) 97

Chapter 7: Financial Astrology—AAA Falling Stars 107

Chapter 8: Bear Market (I’d Like a Review of the Bidding) 123

Chapter 9: Dead Man’s Curve 143

Chapter 10: Bazooka Hank and Dread Reckoning (AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Lehman, Merrill, and Other Fluid Situations) 163

Chapter 11: Bond Insurance Burns Main Street 179

Chapter 12: Money, Money, Money (Warren and Washington) 191

Chapter 13: The Fogs of War, Religion, and Politics 209

Chapter 14: Finding Value 219

Notes 225

Bibliography 259

Index 267