Weekend reading: Buffett stumped

My weekly commentary followed by some links to a few good blogs and financial articles.

I have only just seen this full interview with Warren Buffett on CNBC, which was conducted on September 16th.

Warren’s recollections on the collapse of Lehman Brothers a year ago makes fascinating viewing (perhaps even the wily old Sage of Omaha was excited by the market meltdown?)

As a fan of Buffett the man as well as the investor, I like how he frankly admits he couldn’t understand the deal being proposed to him about getting into a bid for Lehmans.

He didn’t understand the deal, so he didn’t do it.

If you’re putting money into a complicated structured product that you don’t fully understand, you might want to ask yourself: What would Warren do?

From this week’s personal finance blogs

• More thoughts on Warren Buffett’s recollections (Get Rich Slowly)

• 80 years of US market returns: a downloadable spreadsheet (Oblivious Investor)

• Quotes from indexing guru John Bogle (Own the Dollar)

• Can you protect your passive funds with options? (Be sure to read the comments!) (Bargaineering)

• Frugality can be a waste of time (The Simple Dollar)

• Cheap UK companies are disappearing with the rally (iii blog)

• Everything Man Vs Debt owns (Man Vs Debt)

• Emotional investing (Wealth Pilgrim)

Other interesting financial and money articles

• Has buy-and-hold failed investors? (Financial Times)

• Hedge fund superstar Crispin Odey: The rally is a “rational bubble” (Financial Times)

• John Lee is banking on big caps (Financial Times)

• Only cash offers uncorrelated returns (Financial Times)

• Day traders are back (The Times)

• Robert Peston asks what Gordon Brown believes in (The BBC)

• UK house price rises are “unsustainable” (The Telegraph)

• Natwest is offering a 5% regular saving account (The Independent)

• And finally… A star surfer with Asperger’s (The Independent)

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