This is a great list of questions from readers and answers provided by Whitney Tilson (my favorite money manager) about value investing...

Whitney Tilson, one of my favorite value investors, was recently interviewed for "The Power 30's Crystal Ball" in "Smart Money."

Quoted: The best bargains are in names like Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Wal-Mart (WMT), Microsoft (MSFT), McDonald's (MCD) and Costco (COST). They aren't trading at 50 cents to the dollar, traditionally the way we have made money, but we're willing to pay a higher price for higher-quality, stable businesses. We think all of these names are about 30% undervalued. Even if they just sit there growing at 12% to 15%, you can make nice money.

A very article in the NYT regarding squandered wealth. The quotes from Buffett are, as always, good but they're a bit misleading. He actually did require funding at the beginning of Berkshire Hathaway. He told a group of family and friends to give him their money and that he would invest it on their behalf. While not debt, per se (since he had no real obligation to them), it certainly had the same psychological burden and is more money than most of us will ever require to fund an enterprise in our lives.

Quoted: Questioned in 1991 about the reasons rich people hit the skids, the multibillionaire investor Warren E. Buffett told an audience at Notre Dame that debt and alcohol were ever-present culprits in financial demise. “I’ve seen more people fail because of liquor and leverage — leverage being borrowed money,” he said, according to a transcript of his comments. “You really don’t need leverage in this world much. If you’re smart, you’re going to make a lot of money without borrowing.

Quoted: “I’ve never borrowed a significant amount of money in my life. Never,” he added. “Never will. I’ve got no interest in it. The other reason is I never thought I would be way happier when I had 2X instead of X.”

A good article with horse-sense about simplifying your investment portfolio.

Quoted: How to build and manage a minimalist portfolio you can really count on.

One of my long-shot, single-product, home-run-hopeful stocks presented their product at a conference today and indicated that it has some new benefits which had not been seen before. It may end up being useful in the treatment of diabetes!

Quoted: New Study Explores Use of Novel Form of Northfield's Human Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carrier in Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation. - EVANSTON, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 2006--Northfield Laboratories Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLD - News) announced today that a preclinical study describing the use of a novel formulation of the Company's human hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier in pancreatic islet cell isolation and transplantation was presented at the World Transplantation Congress in Boston this morning.

Ajit Jain is considered to be a top-runner to replace Warren Buffett when he passes away. This is a great Bloomberg article on of the "guys behind the guy."

This is definitely one of the best snubs I have seen -

Quoted: ``It is undoubtedly the case that any disappointment I have caused you by declining the interview is far less than the disappointment I would have caused you by granting it.''

Om Malik has come up with a to-do list for Microsoft which I think is pretty good.

Good thing I bought MOT a little while back. Sweet! Up 10%+ today.

Quoted: Motorola Shares Rise After Profit Report. - CHICAGO (AP) -- Motorola Inc.'s stock surged more than 10 percent Thursday after it posted impressive second-quarter results that prompted speculation the handset maker could overtake Nokia Corp. for the global market-share lead as soon as next year.