Warren Buffett

Houses are cheap. Interest rates are low. And the economy is improving. Even Warren Buffett says that housing might be the best investment today. So should you run out and buy a home? Not necessarily.

Last week, Warren Buffett moved to save Media General, paying $142 million to buy 63 of its struggling newspapers. The move helps backstop the newspaper industry, giving it breathing room to figure out a way to survive in the Internet age.

Hey, Wall Street? Chicken Little called. She says you need to stop overreacting to JPMorgan Chase's $2 billion trading loss. I mean, it's not as if the sky were falling. For a bank this big, $2 billion? It's practically rounding error.

It's widely known that millionaires and billionaires pay taxes at a lower rate than those of us who make much less. But did you know that Americans collectively pay far higher income tax rates than many U.S. companies with billions of dollars in profits?

Given the sluggish recovery and a strapped consumer, you'd expect to see corporate America trudging along, not racing for glory. In fact, the Fortune 500 are thriving as a group.

No cameras are permitted. No transcripts are available. Only shareholders may attend. But we have a ringside seat at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Here's what Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha said in this year's Q&A.

This weekend marks the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, often called "Woodstock for Capitalists." But what do the tens of thousands of investors making the pilgrimage to Omaha, Neb., get for their trouble?

This weekend, more than 40,000 of Warren Buffett's disciples will descend on his hometown for Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting, where, among other things, they'll take part in a marathon Q&A session with the Oracle of Omaha himself. Here are three subjects sure to come up.

Let's go over some of the items that will help shape the week that lies ahead on Wall Street: Warren Buffett talks; plastic wins; organic food does too; GM reads its odometer; and recent IPOs check in.

Call it conscious capitalism or just good business, but these five companies have all prospered in every measure over the last decade by doing good for their employees, suppliers, customers or the general public.