2009-01-12 21:16:04 -

Dear Mr. Buffett begins in the summer of 2005, on the eve of the greatest financial meltdown in world history, when Chicago-based derivatives expert, Janet Tavakoli, received an invitation to lunch from Warren Buffett. In this entertaining, gossipy, funny, enlightening and very educational book, Tavakoli bares Wall Street's "malicious mischief" and the tongue-twisting products that both she and Warren Buffett

knew would bring the global financial market to its knees. Through personal anecdotes and her 3-year correspondence with Warren Buffett, Tavakoli shows how they foresaw in advance how bad lending, CDOs, hedge funds, lax oversight, cheap money, leverage, and overrated financial products would lead to financial disaster. Tavakoli unmasks the "Black Barts" who more resemble the famed Wells Fargo stage coach robber than black swans, and identifies the finance meth labs that manufactured Wall Street's financial crack. She asserts there were no outliers, there were only outright liars.


In her well-documented riveting expose, Dear Mr. Buffett makes clear that the bailout isn't for you and me; it is a bailout of Wall Street, the ultimate source of funding and jobs for Washington and financial regulators.


The triumph of Tavakoli's book is her explanation of how Warren Buffett's philosophy of value investing succeeds over Wall Street's excesses in example after insightful real-time example. Buffett advised: "Everyone makes mistakes. Avoid the big mistakes." Buffett avoided major problems and created value. Meanwhile, Wall Street embraced the big mistakes and destroyed value. Tavakoli suggests Buffett's preference for value investing and prudent finance is part of his personality, a desire to prosper while doing no harm. Tavakoli, a derivatives expert, came to appreciate value investing and through Dear Mr. Buffett, we can all find value.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Janet Tavakoli is the founder and president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a Chicago-based consulting firm, and a former adjunct associate professor of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. She is the author of several professional finance books and a frequent guest on news outlets including CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV.








Tavakoli Structured Finance

Janet Tavakoli, president

312-540-0243, info@tavakolistructuredfinance.com