In recent months, amid the housing slump and credit crunch, US economic growth came to a standstill and many economists believe the world’s largest economy is heading for a recession.

This is an intriguing webcast, recorded on Tuesday during Warren Buffett's European sojourn, in which he shares his investment philosophy with MBA students of IMD Business School in Lausanne.

Buffett describes his approach to selecting investments, interspersed with frequent one-liners that underline his down-to-earth humor.

This webcast is long, but great viewing material.

Here are some good quotes from the Berkshire meeting in Omaha that took place last weekend. Most of these were not reported in the mainstream media...

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is investigating a possible conflict of interest created by Berkshire's 19.5% stake in ratings agency Moody's, considering the importance of any ratings provided to Hathaway Assurance by Moody's. The probe is part of a general investigation into conflicts of interest in the credit ratings industry.

Adam of the WealthStore.com really has it out for Warren Buffett. Adam went as far as saying "The sooner the A-Hole of Omaha is toes up, the better off the worlds rich will be, and so will you."

Todd Sullivan of Value Plays believe that Berkshire Hathaway is "fairly valued" at todays market price. The last time, Todd feels, that Berkshire represented "value" was exactly 8 years ago in March 2000 at the height of the dot.com bubble. Since then its share price has risen 256% even after the current drop.

According to Buffett

SA Editor Eli Hoffmann: Barron's takes a detailed look at recent moves of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) master investor Warren Buffett. Key takeaways:

* While publicly tepid on the stock markets, Buffett bought a record $19 billion in equities in 2007, more than double the $9.2 billion he picked up in 2006. Berkshire's equity portfolio is now worth $75B, up from $61.5B in 2006 and $37B in 2004.

Everybody's looking for experts to teach them the wisdom of making money in the markets. There are "expert" chartists, fundamentalists, stock brokers, you name it.

A Come back? Coca-Cola didn't do much after its sky high valuation in the 90s bubble. A look at an interesting small-cap retailer and a funny video with the lovely Erin Burnett.

This is the second part to Todd Kenyon's article on Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, and his attempt at putting an intrinsic value on the behemoth company.

Right off the bat Buffett comments on the credit debacle:

Below is the first part of Todd Kenyon's notes on Warren Buffett's annual shareholder letter that was released last night.

"As always, Buffett reinforced many of his main tenants: good businesses have sustainable competitive advantages, generate attractive returns on capital, and are run by extraordinary managers, even if they don't have to be:

March 2008 Monthly Stock Picks

US Steel ( X ) 108.45 TargetPrice By 4/1 120.00
Coke ( KO ) 58.46 Target Price By 4/1 65.50

www.madmoneyfund.blogspot.com/

Buffett’s offer to back Municipal Bonds sent the stock market soaring on hopes that there would be help on potential claim increases. Buffett’s reinsurance offer does not cover any of the subprime mortgage debt and subprime is still likely to have a major effect for the bond insurers.

Reports surfaced that billionaire Warren Buffett may buy parts of Countrywide. Reports from the Wall Street Journal state that Countrywide’s debt-servicing and its mortgage portfolio - mortgage backed securities may be attractive to Buffett.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett launches a bond insurer targeting local governments...The new bond insurer, Hathaway Assurance Corp. is set to start operating on Friday in New York state, and guarantee the bonds that cities, counties and states use to finance public works...