The end of the world and why Warren Buffet has so much money

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust corrupts and thieves break in and steal. Rather, lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not break in and steal" - Jesus Christ of Nazareth

Warren has sort of followed the advice of Jesus, ( by giving away his money) but he isn't giving up on earning tons more. Why? Because he is an "Intelligent Investor". What is such a person?

Phillip Fisher, one of the greatest investors in American history and a mentor of Mr. Buffet said this, "understanding of what a conservative investment consists, and then in regard to specific investments, following a procedural course of action needed to properly determine whether specific investment vehicles are, in fact, conservative investments." (Common stocks and uncommon profits)

An intelligent investor is not, like 99.99987654% of everyone involved in the stock market a "lemming". A lemming is a "small rodents, usually found in or near the Arctic, in tundra biomes" or "Nearly everyone in America who watches financial television". (my definition)

Mr. Buffett doesn't watch financial tv and isn't interested in what a talking head has to say regarding stocks, because he uses a "procedural course" to determine if something is a good investment. So do the vampires and I. Why does this matter?

Mr. Buffett is the richest man in the world. If I or you or my cat want to be successful investors, the smartest thing to do is to copy someone who has already done what we wish to do. This is called "not reinventing the wheel". When all the lemmings said, "Coca Cola is done for!" Mr. Buffett was buying. When the lemmings shouted, "Capital Cities is cooked!" Mr. Buffett started buying and when bond insurance companies started failing, Mr. Buffett opened his own.

Right now, the lemmings are screaming, "Banks are closing, jump off of the cliff with us!". However, since vampires are asleep (thankfully) when the lemmings are on TV, they don't care what some coiffed pundit thinks - they use a "procedural course" to search for investments.

Right now, Washington Mutual is trading at $3.44 per share. Like all banks, they were assured by the Fed that they could write loans to people who didn't have the financial strength to buy toilet paper and so they have to write down about $1.6 billion in bad debt. But! the vampires noticed that Wamu has $14 per share in cash. So, someone can buy $14 worth of sausages for $3.44. Sound like a good deal to anyone else?

Now, if you are a lemming and are reading this, we could be seeing the end of the world. If so, I hope you and Jesus are good friends, because if not your life is about to get much worse. But if we are not at the end of time, you might want to let your furry friends rush headlong off of the cliff of public sentiment and look at Washington Mutual.

(disclaimer: I am not a registered representative, and neither are the vampires (they refuse to give the series 7 or 66 exams at night!) so this does not constitute investment advice)