1971: The Year Money Changed

1972: See's Candies

How a $25 million candy company helped Buffett and Munger understand the power of brands, pricing power, and businesses that produce cash without needing much capital.

1971: The Year Money Changed

In 1971, the world was changing fast. The Nasdaq opened as the world’s first electronic stock market. Intel released the first microprocessor. Starbucks opened its first store. Blue Ribbon became Nike. Federal Express was born. But the biggest story came on August 15, 1971, when President Nixon ended the dollar’s convertibility into gold and changed the global monetary system forever. In this episode of Becoming Berkshire, we look at the end of Bretton Woods, the rise of stagflation, and Berkshire Hathaway’s 1971 results, where Buffett was still fighting the textile business while quietly building something much better through insurance and banking.

1971: Supermoney and the Buffett Blueprint

In this episode of Becoming Berkshire, we continue through 1971 with George Goodman’s Supermoney and the investing philosophy that shaped Warren Buffett. Benjamin Graham gave Buffett the foundation: margin of safety, Mr. Market, intrinsic value, and the discipline to avoid permanent loss of capital. But investments like American Express and Disney showed the first signs of Buffett’s evolution from buying cheap stocks to recognizing the value of great businesses. This episode explores Graham’s influence, Buffett’s partnership years, and the early bridge between cigar-butt investing and franchise value.

1971: “Who Is Warren Buffett?”

Welcome to 1971. The markets are reeling from one of the worst bear markets since the Great Depression. Speculation has collapsed, confidence is shaken, and the financial world is searching for answers. In this episode of Becoming Berkshire, we turn to an unlikely source: George Goodman, writing under the name Adam Smith, and his book Supermoney. Written in the depths of the 1969–72 bear market, Supermoney captured the unraveling of Wall Street’s excesses—and quietly documented the most extraordinary investment record of the era. At the time, almost no one was paying attention. Goodman asked a simple question in 1971: Who is Warren Buffett? Even seasoned financial journalists didn’t know the answer. From a modest office in Omaha, Buffett had compounded capital at an astonishing rate for over a decade—without publicity, without committees, and without participating in the speculative culture of the 1960s. While others chased concepts and technology, Buffett applied Benjamin Graham’s principles with absolute consistency and stepped away entirely at the height of his success. This episode explores why the world missed him, how distance from Wall Street became an advantage, and what Supermoney reveals about temperament, discipline, and time—the real foundations of compounding.

1970: The Obscure Stamp Company That LAUNCHED Buffett's Empire

Episode 17 | 1970: Goodbody’s Fall, Walmart’s Rise, and Buffett’s First Float Play 1970 opened with chaos on Wall Street. Broker-dealers were failing, the Fed was scrambling, and Goodbody & Co.—once a pillar of the brokerage world—collapsed in scandal before being rescued by Merrill Lynch. Meanwhile, in Bentonville, Arkansas, Sam Walton was taking Walmart public, setting the stage for one of the greatest retail stories ever told. At the same time, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Rick Guerin were quietly buying into Blue Chip Stamps, discovering the power of float—a concept that would define Berkshire Hathaway’s future. And inside Berkshire, the textile mill was fading, but insurance and banking were beginning to take root. This episode explores the contrasts of 1970: Wall Street’s crisis, Walmart’s rise, and the early blueprint of what Berkshire would become.