| Warren Buffett’s last name is one of the great ires of business journalism. I’ve seen it spelled wrong countless times in social posts and even headlines. But news of his retirement provides the perfect excuse for those who fail to remember the second “t” at the end of his surname. Technically speaking, we really do have a Warren buffet for you today! Although the 94-year-old Berkshire Hathaway investor — famous for having the “diet of a six-year-old” — would probably prefer a buffet of ice cream, cookies, McMuffins, french fries, candy and Cherry Coke, here at Bloomberg Opinion, we’re dishing out a healthier smorgasbord. One that’s full of charts, not calories. Starting the sodium-free menu off strong, we examine Buffett’s six-decade track record against some of the best-performing and longest-running mutual funds. “None of them even come close to the master,” observes Nir Kaissar. How about the S&P 500, Wall Street’s preferred salad bar of stocks? “He has outpaced the market so thoroughly and for so long that the S&P 500 disappears by comparison in a basic line chart,” writes Nir. “So, we’re making an exception for an exceptional manager and charting Buffett’s performance on a logarithmic chart to better see his vast margin of victory.” Imagine being so good at your job that you reduce the competition to a barely visible line: “Buffett is celebrated for his stock picking, but he is also a crafty capital allocator,” writes Nir. Put more colloquially, he spent much of his career sitting on an epic pile of cash, zigging while everyone else was zagging: “Investing is supposed to be boring and not flashy,” Allison Schrager said during our live Q&A today. Buffett, who learned his philosophy from the great Ben Graham, understood that intrinsically: “When markets were most exciting, that’s when he built up cash,” she added. “He was willing to ride out the bad times and take a really long view, and I think that’s missing in the current investing community.” Matt Levine agrees: “The thing that Buffett did — long-term buy-and-hold investments in public stocks based on fundamental analysis — is pretty out of vogue these days, at least for professional investment managers.” But the Nebraska native, despite learning how to pick winners at the young age of 11, is not perfect. Take his unsavory support of Occidental Petroleum, one of the biggest oil companies in America. “Berkshire’s position in Oxy’s common stock is now underwater,” writes Liam Denning. “For likely successor Greg Abel, sticking with Buffett’s bet will require an unshakable belief in a big, sustained upswing in oil prices that looks increasingly at odds with the outlook.” Although he’s often called the “Oracle of Omaha,” Jonathan Levin says one of Buffett’s recurring mantras is that he cannot predict the future. “He has a very humble investing philosophy,” explains Jonathan. “He swings at the fat pitches but doesn’t pretend to know how to predict a recession … in a sense, it’s made him one of the wealthiest men in the world.” It’s also made him one of the best teachers in the world. As Nir says in a second column, Buffett “spent decades trying to demystify investing and educate investors, primarily through his artfully written annual shareholder letters, a must-read for any aspiring investor.” Food for thought! If that’s not the perfect ending to this buffet, I don’t know what is. Bonus Investor Reading: This earnings season is a Rorschach test: Bulls will stay hopeful about fat profits, while bears will fear the impact of tariffs. — Jonathan Levin Extreme Makeover: Federal Building Edition | For fun, Justin Fox made a trendline of Elon Musk’s statements on DOGE savings thus far. It shows the number going negative on May 21 and becoming a deficit increase of more than $2 trillion on Dec. 1, which sounds crazy. Justin says it’s “not meant as a serious forecast,” but with President Donald Trump’s deficit-busting tax cuts currently weaving their way through Congress, it’s not an entirely implausible scenario. But Trump doesn’t just want “one big beautiful bill” for tax cuts. He wants “beautiful federal civic architecture,” too. Tobin Harshaw says it’s “an odd demand from a real estate developer whose first signature achievement, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, is a smoked glass and fake bronze ‘gaudy looming interloper,’ as the critic Martin Filler put it.” Even the taco bowls coming out of the kitchen look unappetizing. And what is a “beautiful” building, anyway? Is it the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, pictured left, or the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, pictured right?  Sources: Moreau1, public domain; Carol M. Highsmith Archives, General Services Administration If your first reaction was to gag when looking at the Weaver, you’re not alone: It’s no secret that federal offices need a facelift: “Since America became the world’s superpower after World War II, many if not most federal buildings have been, well, hideous,” writes Tobin. But there’s a right and a wrong way to go about change. In his sprawling feature on America’s architectural divide, he says it’s possible to erect public buildings that are pleasing to all without “suffocating executive orders or the mindless mimicking of Roman and Greek masterpieces.” As for how the government is going to pay for such an extreme makeover, your guess is as good as Elon Musk’s! | 
