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Special Feature
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B&E
The poorest banker on the richest
MIT/Sloan graduate and [ex]investment banker Joshua Persky, currently world-famous for being unemployed (covered by the New York Times), talks ‘nostalgically’ about Buffett; and claims belligerently that he still could be better than Warren himself...
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 Who will succeed Warren Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha?” Ajit Jain? Tony Nicely? Kevin Clayton? Richard Santulli Or David Sokol? They are all leaders in their industries, close associates of Mr. Buffett, and men of integrity. The truth is, they will all succeed Mr. Buffett, yet no one will succeed Mr. Buffett. There is only one Warren Buffett whose fate was to learn, absorb and implement the Benjamin Graham and David Dodd (the two Columbia University professors wrote the bible of value investing, “Securities Analysis,” in 1943, and Graham went on to write “The Intelligent Investor” in 1949) method of value investing. Buffett, their prized student, held fast to their simple but elegant teachings, buying value at a discount and holding for long term. His fate was to become a great, world-famous investor and the richest man in America. No one will succeed him and no one will replace him. He is unique, as is every individual. Without Warren Buffett, his company, Berkshire Hathaway, will not be the same. It may do better or worse, but it will be different. Mr. Buffett’s successor (or successors, as it may take a team to replace him) will have a different fate.
My fate was to become world-famous for being unemployed, very different from Mr. Buffett’s fate, almost the opposite. I was born and raised in NYC, attended the prestigious Dalton High School (whose motto is “Go forth unafraid”), and graduated from MIT in 1981 with a B.S. in Management Science from the Sloan School of Management. I had many great professors at MIT, including several Nobel Prize winners, but unfortunately no Graham and Dodd. My professors lost billions of dollars to their investors, and nearly brought the entire financial system to collapse when their hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management failed. I only read Graham and Dodd’s books on value investing much later.
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Over the years, I have worked on Wall St. as an assistant options trader, for a satellite communications company in business development, for a commercial bank in asset management (I ran a multi-billion dollar Syndicated Loans Agency for financing wind farms and ships), and for an investment bank producing valuations of illiquid hedge fund investments. At the end of last year, I lost my job. Bad timing. Because of the sub-prime mortgage mess (housing and credit crisis, stock market and economic downturn), the large commercial and investment banks have suffered billions of dollars in losses and laid off tens of thousands of employees. I have not been able to find employment in my field (or in other fields) in over six months. After months of making telephone calls, sending resumes (CVs) over the internet, and networking among family, friends and colleagues, I took to the streets to hand out my resume. I went to 50th St. and Park Avenue put on a poster board saying, “Experienced MIT grad for hire,” and included my contact information. I did not realize that within a week, I would be world-famous.
As fate would have it (with a little help from my wife and a friend, Matt Hagan, who does Public Relations), the NY Sun and NY Post first picked up my story, followed by ABC, NBC & CBS (local TV and radio stations), Fox, CNN, & MSNBC (national networks) and finally my picture and story went around the world on the BBC, AP and Reuters. The BBC called me, “the face of the American economy,” while many of the news papers titled my story “Sign of the Times.” I get hundreds and hundreds of emails and phone calls from around the world.
So what’s the connection between me and Mr. Buffett? Interestingly, my wife, Cindy, is from Omaha, Nebraska, the home of the “Oracle of Omaha” and headquarters of Berkshire Hathaway.
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