Origins and Value of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America

In 1995, I was a third-year professor of corporate governance researching literature about the disciplining effect of stock markets on managerial behavior. Stock markets were viewed as so efficient that price was a transparent report card on executive performance.  This implied a modest need for other governance devices such as board oversight or fiduciary duties.  But there were also nagging questions about market efficiency.  Called anomalies, these were exceptions to efficiency where the evidence showed that price was noisy, not always a clear signal.