Kass: Burlington Bet Could Derail Berkshire

This blog post originally appeared on RealMoney Silver on Nov. 4 at 8:54 a.m. EST.

To date, Dexter is the worst deal that I've made. But I'll make more mistakes in the future -- you can bet on that. A line from Bobby Bare's country song explains what too often happens with acquisitions: "I've never gone to bed with an ugly woman, but I've sure woke up with a few."

-- Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Letter to Shareholders (2008)

In the past, I have shorted Berkshire when I thought Warren lost his groove, and I have gone long Berkshire when the market was in a state of panic - and both sides of the trade were profitable. I have criticized what I have seen as style drift when he increased his involvement in derivatives (or financial weapons of mass destruction) and I have parodied his high-profile editorial in The New York Times in October 2008, "Buy American. I Am." ...