THE ORACLE SPEAKS

From his office in Omaha, Nebraska, without even the benefit of a computer, Warren Buffett has racked up an investment record that far surpasses his counterparts on Wall Street—or anyone else in the world, for that matter. While traditionally stock exchanges have returned about 11 percent annually in the past half century, Buffett's investments have by nearly 29 percent a year, solidifying Buffett's conglomerate holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, as the eighth-largest business in the world and netting him $44 billion along the way.