The golden age of piracy has well and truly begun

Buffett's pregnant daughter asked her billionaire father for a $30,000 loan for a new kitchen. He sent her to a bank for a mortgage. Susie and her husband's house in Washington was cramped, and the kitchen badly needed expanding. They didn't have the cash for the work. She made a point of saying: "I was not asking him to give me the money." Just a loan - from a father worth tens of billions of dollars. Buffett said no. Susie recalled what she was thinking at the time: "Oh, come on. Can't you do this?" She joked she'd end up on the cover of People as homeless while her father became "super rich." It wasn't about the amount. $30,000 isn't a decision that takes Buffett any real thought. It's that he processed his own daughter's request the same way he'd process a stranger's application: a credit decision, not a family obligation. The real question in front of him wasn't "can I afford this." It was whether being his daughter should make him her personal bank. The answer turned out to be no - not even once, not even for a kitchen, not even for a pregnant daughter.

"I am certain that wherever Bowie is now, I want to be there someday." — Michael Stipe