Michael Steinhardt Takes On Warren Buffett, Dismisses His Success

He's been called a master of the stock market and a

. But this week on

, Michael Steinhardt was the one making the calls. “The biggest thing we have to worry about is how long it will take for Buffett to come down to Earth where he should have been a long time ago,” Steinhardt said during his interview with CNBC. “People like you begin to recognize his reality and get off some cloud.” When asked, “What is his reality?” Steinhardt replied, “His reality is that he is the greatest PR person of recent times and he has managed to achieve a snow job that has conned virtually everyone in the press to my knowledge and it is remarkable that he continues to do it.” CNBC reporters quickly responded by noting Buffett's success in outperforming the S&P 500. “Well, I'm not sure he's done that,” Steinhardt said. “And I'm sure you measured that appropriately. But what he has done and I think it's a great measure of the man's wonder, is he gave away 2 1/4 cents for the first 70 some odd years of his life. He gave away nothing. Then in one fell swoop, he gave away almost all of his money thoughtlessly to one guy. “And from that moment on, he became the greatest advocate to philanthropy. And pitched all the bumbling billionaires to do the same thing and many of them did. Now that takes a special guy. Having given away nothing for 70 some odd years and in one fell swoop – boom! – he gives it all away and pitches the other yo-yos to give it away, too. What does that say? I think that's worth reflecting.” When asked if he had signed the Giving Pledge, Steinhardt said that he gave away much more of his wealth much earlier in his career than Buffett did. “But you know, good that he gave it away, I guess,” Steinhardt said. “But it's not so good that things like that are not reflected upon.” When Benzinga interviewed Steinhardt last year, he reminisced about his success as a hedge fund manager – particularly the challenge of earning 30%. “I don't think most hedge fund managers even think in those terms,” he said. “I think they're much more interested, if possible, a very, very low double-digit number – 10% or 12%, 500 basis points higher than a treasury, or something like that, they feel they've really achieved sufficient hedge fund compensation.” Full Interview: Part 1:

Part 2:

But as Steinhardt pointed out, the competition was much slimmer when he began. “When I was doing it, there were tens of hedge funds,” he told Benzinga. “Now there are tens of thousands. It's a different world. And I think the standards are different. The measures are different. It used to be the best and the brightest. And now, it's still some of the best and the brightest, and sometimes it's not.”