Dear Mr. Buffett: What An Investor Learns 1,269 Miles From Wall Street

Preface

In 2003, I moved from London to Chicago, my original hometown, and founded a finance consulting firm, Tavakoli Structured Finance, Inc. Sophisticated financial institutions call me when they have trouble understanding complex financial products, and in recent years, the products have exploded in size and complexity. They also call me when they fight with each other over these products. As a result, my firm is a lightning rod for the myriad problems facing the credit markets. My client list is short and elite, and in one way or another, most of my business comes from my former employers.

I created a niche business at the right time. Structured finance birthed a plethora of new products with acronyms such as ABS, MBS, CDO, and CMO, among other alphabet combinations. Reporters and television networks frequently ask me to make sense of market madness. I've made repeat television appearances—CNN, CNBC, BNN (Canada's Business News Network), CBS Evening News, Bloomberg TV, and First Business Morning News—on where I've frequently predicted problems long before the market or even the Federal Reserve acknowledged them. I've been quoted in major financial publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune and Investors Dealers' Digest (among others) in which I was often the first to publicly and specifically challenge major financial institutions, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the major rating agencies: Moody's Corporation (Moody's); Standard ...