Introduction to the Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America

Abstract

This Professor Cunningham's Introduction to his edited collection of Warren Buffett's noted letters to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The collection was prepared for a symposium held at Cardozo Law School in New York City in 1997 and originally published in the Cardozo Law Review. The Introduction serves as an encapsulation of the main themes of the resulting collection and locates them in contemporary discourse on matters of corporate governance; corporate finance and investing; mergers and acquisitions; and accounting and taxation. Professor Cunningham subsequently published the edited collection as a book under the title The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, which also contains this Introduction.

Keywords: value investing, Warren Buffett, margin of safety, circle of competence, modern finance theory, executive compensation, corporate governance

JEL Classification: M10, G34, G24, G31, M41, M43, M44, M45, H25