---
title: Buffett Scholar Reflects on American Investing Icon ‘Going Quiet’
date: 2025-11-25T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/buffet-scholar-reflects-on-american-investing-icon-going-quiet"
section: Articles
---
# Buffett Scholar Reflects on American Investing Icon ‘Going Quiet’

*November 25, 2025* — by [John Tucker](/author/john-tucker)


> Economist Analyzed Role Model’s Business Moves for Decades

*Buffet R2 flat 1920x1080 1 — Lauded as perhaps history's greatest investor, Warren Buffett is stepping down this year as Berkshire Hathaway CEO. (Illustration by Lauren Biagini)*

The photograph from 2005 (below) depicts a broad-shouldered Warren Buffett surrounded by UMD students, handing his wallet to a grinning undergraduate who tugs at the hunk of leather, nonplussed at his seeming luck. But Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass, smirking off to the right side in the photo, says Buffett was just having fun while living out his famous Rule No. 1: Never lose money. (Rule No. 2? Never forget rule No. 1.)

“It was a photo op—he doesn’t really let the wallet go,” says Kass, displaying the keepsake soon after Buffett announced in May that he would step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the company he turned into a $1.1 trillion juggernaut. In his annual Thanksgiving letter, Buffett this year wrote that he was “‘going quiet.’ Sort of.”


*Warren Buffett hands student wallet, with David Kass smirking on the right — (Photo courtesy of David Kass)*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Finance](https://today.umd.edu/topic/finance), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [Robert H. Smith School of Business](https://today.umd.edu/topic/robert-h-smith-school-business)