Moat

March 28, 2008. Lehman Brothers calls Warren Buffett and asks for help. He says no. One hundred seventy-one days later, the bank files the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Before he answered, he read the entire annual report. He wrote the page numbers that scared him on the cover - real estate, derivatives, securitization. By the end, saying no wasn't a feeling. It was a list. Two days before the bankruptcy, in a hotel room in Edmonton, another call came in. Bob Diamond, Barclays. He wanted Buffett to insure Lehman's trades so a rescue deal could close. Buffett asked for the terms by fax. No fax ever arrived. Diamond had left the details on Buffett's cell phone instead. Buffett didn't know how to check voicemail. His daughter found the message ten months later. Lehman filed for bankruptcy on Monday. Eight days after that, Berkshire put five billion dollars into Goldman Sachs. He didn't refuse the risk he couldn't see coming. He refused the risk he could already read. The missed call didn't cost him the decision. It only cost him the alternative.