The Omaha Oracle and Closing thoughts

Background:

The story that would become the Omaha Oracle began when I discovered Warren Buffett in January and began to collect and live by his philosophy. 

Who is Warren Buffett?:

The CEO of one of the most profitable Insurance firms on the planet, a great philanthropist, and the single most successful investor in Wall Street history. He is a man in possession of the rare Midas touch whose every investment brings great prosperity to him and his corporation. He has successfully predicted every bull market and recession for the past 60 years. He is the 3rd richest man on the planet and in my eyes represents the ideal that all of us should strive for: He is an incredibly Intelligent, driven and successful man who has reached the height of his profession and continues to build on his already outstanding track record of unprecedented financial success. 

The great Financial wizard Warren Buffett, I have read his biography,  listened to all of his lectures and Interviews and spent the past 6 months collecting and analysing his personal success and moneymaking philosophies. He proved a great canvas on which to build my financial superhero. 

From Idol to Superhero:

I was learning an incredible amount from this extraordinary man and I just couldn't believe how perfect and effective his methods were, to say I Idolise the man would be a very accurate statement and very soon I began to form ideas. I had never seen a man with such a spotless record of achievement and such an unprecedented talent for success, it was almost as though he was a god-like figure. 

And so I began to relate the great entrepreneur to the current financial recession. In the light of all the financial woe and the various market bubbles and stock market crashes the fact that Mr Buffett can continue to profit immensely and be called upon by the White House to advise the nation's finances! All of these correlations lead me to one conclusion which came upon me as if by divine intervention "what if he was a superhero". 

And so I began to write what would eventually become the Omaha Oracle (which in actual fact is one of the many nicknames I and fellow Buffetologists affectionately give him). The premise of my superhero parody was in actual fact an extension of Warren Buffett's financial activities. To most he is mild mannered financial wizard Warren Buffett making great investments and efficiently running Berkshire Hathaway one of the largest and most profitable businesses on the planet. Yet when mass hysteria ensues, when market prices are rising too quickly and when corporate greed tricks innocent people out of their common sense and money he become the Omaha Oracle protector of the ignorant and defender of long-term holdings. 

The Creditor:

Now that I had my superhero and my premise it was time to give him a villainous counterpart. I began to wrack my brain for the circumstances that would cause Buffett to leave his office and fight problems in the market. I read financial reports everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to the Guardian looking for an economic problem that everyone was aware and would be capable of understanding.       

It was during this research period that I came upon a BBC 2 documentary from the year 2010 only two years after the current economic crisis began.The premise of the programme was the many millionaires that have been created since the start of the 21st century. During this period more colossal fortunes have been made than during the industrial revolution, but during the industrial revolution the factory owners made their fortunes over periods of 35-50 years, the wealthy individuals this programme talked about had made their fortunes in a tenth of that time and made vastly larger amounts of money! 

One of the key points of interest in this programme that immediately grabbed my attention was the lack of compliance and regulation leading up to the crisis. I'm talking of course about subprime mortgages and the borrowing of cash assets. Many of these  ultra-wealthy individuals approved of and perpetuated these thoughtless and selfish practices with overwhelming financial results in their favour.

Unfortunately the common man was the complete antithesis of this success. People thoughtlessly bought into this newfound prosperity and financial freedom without realising that they were playing into the hands of the ultra-wealthy masterminds behind these schemes. And all of these fundamentally unstable practices were perpetuated by a banking system that saw opportunity for profit and just kept lending money to keep the ultra-wealthies' schemes in perpetual motion constantly making the wealthy wealthier. 

I was personally outraged by the fact that the very institutions that are supposed to guarantee the financial security of the population could be so reckless and arrogant in their decision making and all but completely disregard compliance procedure. 

From all of these hideous liberties wealthy individuals in the finance sector have taken I began to form the first of what will no doubt be my "league of financial evil".

I gave him the name "The Creditor" in honour of the free movement of money that preceded the recession and wrote his first scheme based around the gross miscarriage of social justice that I have just mentioned. His first plot concerned all of his customers or rather how he was planning to take them to the cleaners and milk them for every penny by raising the interest rates on their mortgages and cash assets. In basic terms he was going to wipe out their savings by making them pay more than they can possibly afford. Now that I had my villain it was time to write the first of my Omaha Oracle sketches.

The style:

In choosing a style theme to wrap around my premise and allow the general public to digest the vast swathes of information I was pouring into my satire. I had to take into account many tangible factors from the age of my hero to the subject matter. I needed a style that would reflect the age of Mr Buffett, the nature of the battle and the satirical nature of the overall programme the Omaha Oracle would be part of. I racked my brain for a style that would befit all of this until I came upon the paramount studio Superman cartoons of the 1940's, their fantastical plots and superb music provided the perfect format for my "capital appreciation crime fighter" and I soon began to mimic the format using my voice and editing: 

     This would later become the introduction (in various pieces and orders) to my Omaha Oracle sketch and would first serve as the great inspiration for what was soon to become my most intelligent and well presented satire to date. 

The Episode: 

To quote the creditor the entire plot seemed to "flow like water to my brilliant idea". The entire plot was designed around the creditors' grand master plan and the efforts of the Omaha Oracle to stop him. 

Warren is innocently composing a letter to the shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway when suddenly his partner (the equally ingenious and modest Charlie Munger) calls to inform him the that he is about to recieve a fax from their old sparring partner (in reference to similar schemes and circumstance in past instances). It is a boastful message from the creditor in which he claims the great returns on his subprime mortgage and money lending businesses have made him a superior financier and that Warren Buffett is losing his once great touch. Outraged that the creditor is exploiting the ignorance of the general population to their ultimately detrimental ends he dons the guise of the Omaha Oracle and tracks the financial fiend down. 

We soon learn that the creditor is up to no good, and upon arriving at the creditors' office Buffet is imprisoned. As the evil equity builder explains his diabolical plans to the imprisoned Oracle the two argue over the ramifications and consequences of what he's about to do. The Creditor unleashes his evil plan unto the world, and as his bank account swells the Oracle uses his power of "Kinetic Carnegie coercion" to destroy consumer habits and force them to abandon the market trends that are destroying their savings. He then informs the creditor of the great overwhelming loop hole in his logic. The two then work in unison to obliterate the creditors' scheme and free Mr Buffett. Buffett now free saves the market by buying up more newly devalued stock and earning Berkshire a profound amount of new income. 

Buffett and Munger now relaxed and talking of the future remind us that wherever there is financial abuse the Omaha Oracle will not be far behind. 

The Explanation:

The entire episode is a satire of the way finance works and the colossal mistakes that wealthy intelligent entrepreneurs are capable of making even with all of their supposedly sound business practices. I wanted also to highlight just how much power these wealthy influential men have over the common man, a single decision made by a figure of influence in the financial sector will have incredibly far reaching consequences for the common tax-payer.

I also wanted to highlight that all great economic problems are caused by the bad habits of the masses. When projected on such a scale any bad spending habit can result in extremely far reaching consequences for the entire economy. 

The ending of the piece was simply re-connecting with reality, the individuals that took liberties with the economic system that threw us into this horrific recession nightmare have cashed in their chips frozen their assets and left the vast majority of us not only to suffer but to continue to fund their lifestyle! 

In Memoriam...

This was the first time I had attempted satire from an entirely invented concept, in retrospect there are many things I would change and some aspects of the script I would spend more time developing though overall I was very pleased with the end result. 

In my eyes it was a  very successful satire that stands to spawn many subsequent episodes. I already have plans for an adventure to Mexico, the search for the perfect discount and an encounter with the great but unproductive anti-hero Modern portfolio man (satirizing modern portfolio theory).