Well, you teach at Columbia. That's unemployed. I did it as a part-time thing starting in 1983 so that I could play squash.
I thought it was the love of teaching. It has developed into much more. But when I started out, I didn't even want to teach. I just wanted to learn
how to play squash.
You're not being facetious? You actually started teaching so you could play squash? I'm dead serious. Columbia is right here and the Dean kept pestering me to teach a course. I told him, "I
don't think people should go to business school." I thought that, for many people, business school was a waste of
time. I still think so. But one thing I wanted to learn in my retirement was how to play squash. So I made a deal with
the Dean to teach one course per semester for free, in return for lifetime access to the Columbia gym. He agreed. I
thought I got a great deal, but he was smarter than I was—I'm still teaching.
I take it, at this point, you really enjoy it. Oh, it's good fun, yes. And Columbia is terrific.
What courses are you teaching? Security analysis, investment analysis, and the "Bulls and Bears" course we talked about before.
Of the multitude of your trading experiences, do any stand out as particularly dramatic? Lots. My October 19 birthday present that I talked about earlier was probably the best. August 1982 is
another. I put a gigantic part of my net worth into bonds throughout 1981 and 1982, and in August 1982, they
skyrocketed.
Any negative dramatic experiences? August 1971 was a very exciting time. We were long Japan and short America, and one Sunday night, Nixon
announced that he was taking America off the gold standard. I didn't even know it had happened. I had been off
somewhere on my motorcycle, and I came in Monday morning without having read the papers. That week the
Japanese stock market went down 20 percent, and the U.S. stock market went up. We were losing heavily on both
sides.
