13. Adapted from John Dunn, "Georgia Tech Students Quiz Warren Buffett," Georgia Tech, Winter 2003.

14. Bob Woodward, "Hands Off, Mind On," Washington Post, July 23, 2001.

Chapter 59.

1. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.

2. Interview with Stan Lipsey; Jonathan D. Epstein, "GEICO Begins Hiring in Buffalo," Buffalo News, February 11, 2004.

3. Interviews with Peter Buffett, Howie Buffett, Susie Buffett Jr.

4. Peter and Susie also gave substantial amounts to the Buffett Foundation in their first two years.

5. Generally speaking, federal law governing foundations requires that foundations distribute or use a minimum amount of their assets regularly for their charitable purposes (approximately 5% of the fair market value of the private foundation's investment assets).

6. At the time, Susie had about 35,000 shares in her own name, worth about $2.8 billion, apart from what she might receive as part of Warren's estate should he predecease her.

7. Charles T. Munger, edited by Peter Kaufmann, Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. New York: Donning Company Publishers, 2005.

Chapter 60.

1. Interview with Kathleen Cole.

2. Interviews with Jamie Dimon, Jeffrey Immelt.

3. Berkshire Hathaway 2004 chairman's letter, annual report.

4. Berkshire Hathaway letter to shareholders, 2006. Buffett had stated these criteria in private earlier.

5. Betsy Morris, "The Real Story," Fortune, May 31, 2004.

6. Investors felt that Coke should move aggressively into noncarbonated drinks, but the company insisted that international growth in carbonated beverages-the highest-margin product-was the only way to go. At $50, the stock was also still expensive at 24x earnings and 8.6x book value.

7. Coca-Cola Enterprises took a $103 million charge for the European recall during Ivester's reign. In 1999, Daft had to report the first loss in a decade and take a total of $1.6 billion of charges. Then, in 1Q2000, Daft reported Coke's second quarterly loss in a row-charges for massive restructuring/layoffs and a write-down of excess bottling capacity in India. In 2000, Coke took more charges and cut its projection for annual worldwide unit case volume growth to 5% to 6%, from 7% to 8%. Coke revised its targets again after 9/11.

8. Suppose Berkshire demanded a special deal. On $120 million of purchases, this might be worth, say, a dime a share, estimating liberally. Berkshire earned $5,309 per A equivalent share in 2003. (The company doesn't present cents per share in its financial statements.) To a B shareholder, it would be 3/10 of a penny per share. It's very hard to make a case that an amount so small would incent Buffett to do something so contrary to Coca-Cola's interests as to force it to turn down a big contract with Burger King in order to keep selling Coca-Cola at Dairy Queen. That would be so even if Berkshire owned zero Coca-Cola stock. The problem with the ISS approach was its absolutist checklist approach that applies no reasoning and proportionality.

9. CalPERS also opposed the election of Herbert Allen, former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, and Don Keough because of their business relationships with the company.

10. Herbert Allen, "Conflict-Cola," Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2004.

11. Excerpts from a survey of corporate board members conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, as reported in Corporate Board Member, November/December 2004. PWC identified no comments or sentiment against Buffett.

12. Deborah Brewster, Simon London, "CalPERS Chief Relaxes in the Eye of the Storm," Financial Times, June 2, 2004.

13. Interview with Don Graham.

14. "Coke Shareholders Urged to Withhold Votes for Buffett," Atlanta Business Chronicle, April 9, 2004.

15. In "The Rise of Independent Directors in the U.S., 19502005: Of Shareholder Value and Stock Market Prices" (Stanford Law Review, April 2007), Jeffrey N. Gordon concludes, "One of the apparent puzzles in the empirical corporate governance literature is the lack of correlation between the presence of independent directors and the firm's economic performance. Various studies have searched in vain for an economically significant effect on the overall performance of the firm."

16. This issue was resolved through a consent decree on April 18, 2005, in which the company did not pay a fine or admit wrongdoing but promised to clean up its internal audit, compliance, and disclosure systems.

17. The GMP International Union, which also spoke at the meeting.

18. Transcript, Coca-Cola shareholder meeting 2004, courtesy of the Coca-Cola Company; Adam Levy and Steve Matthews, "Coke's World of Woes," Bloomberg Markets, July 2004; interviews with several directors and company employees.

19. Transcript, Coca-Cola shareholder meeting 2004, courtesy of the Coca-Cola Company.

20. Adam Levy and Steve Matthews, "Coke's World of Woes." The New York Times blasted Coke over severance payments to Heyer and other executives in "Another Coke Classic," June 16, 2004. The criticism was not universal; the Economist said Isdell was "welcomed by investors and analysts as a safe pair of hands" ("From Old Bottles," May 8, 2004).

21. For example, Constance L. Hays, in The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company (New York: Random House, 2004), makes this inference.

Chapter 61.

1. Interview with Tom Newman.

2. Interview with Kathleen Cole.

3. Ibid.

4. The author, too, has for some years sat in the managers' section, although she is not a shareholder.

5. This dinner, which was hosted by Morgan Stanley at the time, subsequently became a private event hosted by the author.

6. Courtesy Paul Wachter, producer, Oak Productions.

7. Tom Strobhar, "Report on B-H Shareholder Meeting," Human Life International, May 2004; "Special Report, HLI Embarrasses Warren Buffett in Front of 14,000 Stockholders," July 2004. Mr. Strobhar has a curious history. After serving as a leader in the boycott against Berkshire that resulted in canceling the shareholder-contributions program, he wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, "Giving Until It Hurts" (August 1, 2003), criticizing the shareholder-contributions program for being a clandestine way of "paying" Buffett (Notwithstanding that Berkshire made no corporate charitable contributions nor paid a dividend). Strobhar identified himself only as the president of an investment firm in Dayton, Ohio, omitting his role in the boycott and the fact that he was chairman of Life Decisions International. Strobhar went on in 2005 to found Citizen Action Now, an organization designed to fight "the homosexual agenda" and for "an America free from the manipulation of homosexual groups." On the website of his investment firm, he borrows Buffett's reputation by advertising himself (as of November 2007) as "trained in the tradition of Ben Graham, the 'father of security analysis,' whose students include Warren Buffet [sic], 'the world's greatest investor.'...Like Graham and Buffett, Thomas Strobhar's focus is on 'value investing.'"

8. Excerpts from 2004 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting are from notes of the author.

9. The Omaha Housing Authority bought the house for $89,900.

10. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Howard Buffett Jr. (Howie B.), speaking at Susie's funeral.

15. Interview with T. D. Kelsey.

16. Ibid.

17. Interviews with Al Oehrle, Barbara Oehrle.

18. Interview with T. D. Kelsey.

19. Interviews with Herbert Allen, Barbara Oehrle, T. D. Kelsey.

20. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.

21. Interviews with Herbert Allen, T. D. Kelsey. According to the Oehrles, Herbert Allen, and Barry Diller, the rest of the guests remained in Cody for the weekend and turned the weekend, as best they could, into a sort of tribute to Susie.

22. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.

23. Interview with Howie Buffett.

24. Interviews with T. D. Kelsey, Herbert Allen.

25. Interviews with Susie Buffett Jr., Peter Buffett.

26. Interviews with Susie Buffett Jr. and Peter Buffett, who both said they found it comforting to have their mother with them in the plane.

27. Interview with Howie Buffett.

28. Interview with Sharon Osberg.

29. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.

30. Interview with Devon Spurgeon, whom Susie Jr. called on her honeymoon in Italy. The author was also supposed to make this trip; Buffett's wish for emotional support from women was probably at an all-time high during this period.

Chapter 62.

1. She left significant amounts of money to Kathleen Cole and Ron Parks, her longtime trusted caretakers and friends. She left her grandchildren and other people modest amounts, from $10,000 to $100,000.

2. Interview with Tom Newman.

3. Interview with Howie Buffett.

4. Interview with Peter Buffett.

5. A. D. Amorosi, "In 'Spirit,' Tradition Is Besieged by Modern Life," Philadelphia Inquirer, May 23, 2005.

6. Interview with Susie Buffett Jr.

7. Interview with Peter Buffett.

8. Interview with Sharon Osberg.

9. Interview with Charlie Munger.

10. Berkshire Hathaway annual letter to shareholders, 2005.

11. Charles R. Morris, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown. New York: Public Affairs, 2008.

12. Carol Loomis, "Warren Buffett Gives It Away," Fortune, July 10, 2006.

13. Ibid.

14. Buffett could not resist: The note that accompanied Bertie's letter containing this comment said, "She's still smarting about that a little bit."

15. Interview with Doris Buffett.

16. In installments beginning in 2006, as long as either Bill or Melinda Gates is active in the foundation.

17. The first installment of 602,500 shares declined 5% a year in terms of shares thereafter. Buffett expected, as was reasonable, that the price of Berkshire's stock would increase by at least 5% a year (through modest growth and inflation). Thus, the dollar value of the gifts was likely to remain level or even increase from year to year. During the year between the first gift and the second, Berkshire's stock price went up 17%. The first 602,500-B-share distribution was worth $1.8 billion, compared to the second 572,375-B-share distribution worth $2 billion. In June 2006, BRK was trading at $91,500 (B shares at $3,043).

18. As quoted in "The Life Well Spent: An Evening with Warren Buffett," November 2007.

19. Bill Gates used the term "convenors." This approach differs, for example, from annually funding a vaccine program, which requires a continuing investment without a permanent cure.

20. "The New Powers of Giving," Economist, July 6, 2006; Karen DeYoung, "Gates, Rockefeller Charities Join to Fight African Hunger," Washington Post, September 13, 2006; Han Wilhelm, "Big Changes at the Rockefeller Foundation," Chronicle of Philanthropy, September 8, 2006; Andrew Jack, "Manna from Omaha: A Year of 'Giving While Living' Transforms Philanthropy," Financial Times, December 27, 2006.

21. Interview with Doris Buffett. See Sally Beaty, "The Wealth Report: The Other Buffett," Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2007.

22. Former President Jimmy Carter letter to Warren Buffett, October 18, 2006.

23. The guinea worm enters the body through the drinking of tainted water, then grows up to three feet long and the width of a paper clip. The worm burns its way out through the skin by emitting an excruciatingly painful acid, emerging a few inches a day as sufferers wind it around a twig. They often seek relief by plunging into water, where the erupting worm releases a cloud of larvae to begin the cycle anew. The Carter Center and other nongovernmental organizations are tantalizingly close to wiping out the guinea worm.

24. Interview with Astrid Buffett.