• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

Ackman’s Oedipus Complex

Ackman’s professed admiration for his hero Warren Buffett was questioned in some quarters after a recent podcast appearance, where the hedge fund billionaire appeared to second-guess the Oracle of Omaha’s strategy.

Bill Ackman
Ackman posted a seemingly apologetic note this week to “clarify” his comments on a much more personal subject: Warren Buffett. Photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
March 6, 2025

Bill Ackman, the voluble hedge fund manager, has a tendency to shoot from the hip, leaving even his friends scratching their heads. Lately, those misfires mostly occur on X, f.k.a. Twitter, where Bill is prone to long, unedited, unfiltered flights of fancy on all manner of topics. Earlier this week, for example, he speculated that perhaps CNN had been “tipped off” about last year’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump—a conspiracy theory that the network categorically rejected. Instead of backing down, Ackman defended his post by attributing his prowess as an investor to his “willingness to consider the improbable as possible.”