Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) with Warren Buffett at the helm has one of the greatest financial combinations investors have ever seen. The shares of the once-wheezing textile-maker-turned-investment-vehicle doubled over the past 10 years while the broad Standard &Poor’s 500 Index returned only 18% during the same period. In the process, Buffett became the richest man on the planet, with a net worth of about $62 billion, Forbes magazine reported back in March.

Since then, however, Berkshire Hathaway’s shares have plunged 23% - the "Class A" shares closed Friday at $116,650 each, down from their 52-week high of $151,650 (the "Class B" shares represent 1/30th of the Class A shares). And Berkshire Hathaway recently reported a slight drop in its year-to-year earnings due to some weaknesses in its operating businesses, as well as some market losses in long-term derivative positions that ultimately will almost surely be very profitable.

But the long-term track record of Buffett is indisputable.  His fame is such that many make a living of playing the "WWWBN Game" - "What Will Warren Buy Next."

Some analysts argue that Buffett has lost his magic touch. We dismiss this out of hand.  His most-recent decisions to add into railroads, to buy shares in leading steelmaker Posco Ltd. (NYSE ADR: PKX) and 19 other South Korean companies, buying the leading Israeli industrial company and taking profits in his China holdings just before that market lost half its value all were brilliant moves and will more than compensate for any mistakes he made in timing the U.S. dollar’s weakness the year before or more recently in taking some mark-to-market losses in credit default swaps, where he eventually should end up making very good money.

More recently, Buffett’s Berkshire has added - either directly or indirectly - holdings in such companies as Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT), making it the foodmaker’s biggest shareholder, and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE ADR: GSK), Europe’s largest drugmaker.