The housing bubble and subsequent "Great Recession" have tarnished the stars of a good many of the world's financial wizards, such as the former heads at Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch. But one respected image remains -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- on top: Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A).

That's according to a recent quarterly poll of investors, traders, and analysts who subscribe to Bloomberg terminals, those somewhat cryptic news and data computers that are ubiquitous on Wall Street. Buffett, who received favorable nods from 25% of those participating in the poll, walked away with a plurality of the vote, Bloomberg News reported.

Like so many others, you probably wanted to be a fly on the wall when Warren Buffet gave his fourth-quarter report to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE BRK.A). Well, here's the bad news: Net profit fell 96%, the fifth quarterly straight decline and Berkshire's net worth dropped a whopping $10.9 billion in the final three months of 2008.

Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified company that invests in insurer Geico Corp. and such things as carpeting, ice cream, paint, and real estate services. But to quote Mr. Buffet: "the economy will be in shambles throughout 2009."

This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.

Well, "my pal Warren" did it again. "The richest man in the world" -- it has a nice ring to it.

Though the moniker did not last throughout the year due to the violent markets, and his significant holdings in insurance, Geico and General RE; banking, US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC); and credit card company American Express (NYSE: AXP), which all dropped, he is still viewed as the top investment guru in the world, deserving his title -- the Oracle of Omaha. These are likely only temporary setbacks and he may very well be back on top soon.

Warren Buffett has been alternating places with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) founder Bill Gates over the past decade. Since Microsoft shares are only down about 35% this year, less than the overall market, and since that remains his largest holding, Gates edged out Buffett at last measure. Although Buffett is notorious for not investing in "tech-stocks," he has stated he did buy 100 shares of Microsoft after he and Gates became friends.

It has been quite a year indeed for Buffett because in all the market turmoil he has remained very active, and he has advised both presidential candidates when asked, though he has supported the Democratic Party and president-elect Barack Obama, who has more actively sought his advice as of late.

Paid-search giant Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been sued by AMR Corp.'s (NYSE: AMR) American Airlines over an advertising dispute, according to the Associated Press. The suit alleges that Google would sell American Airlines-trademarked keywords to rival airlines. In doing so, Google obviously managed to seriously offend the management at American.

It's interesting that Google refused to settle with American before the case went to court. It proves that Google is aware of these practices and feels they can justify them.

I'd assume that Google refused to settle based on a previous legal decision -- this one related to Geico, a segment of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A). This case was very similar to American's. Geico was angry because other insurance companies had been allowed to purchase advertising under the term "Geico," a trademark of the company. In this case, the judge decided that Google's procedures were actually legal.

Despite the popularity of Google's search engine, one has to wonder if advertisers or publishers are ever going to seriously put their feet down against Google's practices. Google collects more than half of the AdSense program's revenues for itself and remains incredibly secretive, even to its best publishers. As this case displays, Google also has controversial practices with advertising customers -- practices that could come back and haunt this company in the future.

I'd argue that the company's earnings multiple of 40 and powerful growth estimates from analysts don't reflect the potential risks involved in the company's sometimes-deceptive practices.

Disclosure: Kevin Kelly is long Berkshire Hathaway (B).

From its origin in textiles in the nineteenth century, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) has grown to become the monster holding company that it is today. Though its core business is now insurance, BRK has fingers in many pies: from owning Geico, Dairy Queen and Fruit of the Loom, to its pieces in the Washington Post Co. (NYSE:WPO), UPS Inc. (NYSE:UPS), and Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT), among many others.

It's all led by investment sage Warren Buffett, the so-called Oracle of Omaha. Buffett is well-known for his philosophy of value investing for the long run, and has often discouraged focusing on quarterly reports. That may be why I had such a hard time finding a confirmed release date for BRK's next earnings report. It also may be why so few analysts closely cover BRK, even though multitudes of individual investors hang on Buffett's every word and move.

The consensus estimate, to the extent that one can truly reach a consensus with only two or three analysts' opinions, is for $1452.36 per share, or growth of 21.4%, according to Thomson Financial. As diversified as BRK is, it's hard to imagine it having a weak quarter, yet BRK.A is rated as a hold by analysts, for reasons our own Jonathon Berr recently explored. The median target price is $123,000. BRK class A shares closed Wednesday at $110,050 (class B shares at $3,667).

That may be neither here nor there for investors, who, like Buffett, are in it for the long haul. BRK will report sometime between now and March 1, and when it does, will it beat the expectations of those who suggest holding (or even selling) the stock, few as they may be? Or will analysts be right and BRK will somehow fall short? What do you think?

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know what you're expecting.

Reader L.N. Wright recently posed us a good question:

"What's up with BRK-B shares? They've been down quite a bit lately, and I can't find much commentary about current performance. Everyone seems to want to talk about the `good-ole-days', and how much Warren Buffett made over the past 30 or so years. What I want to know is whether the consensus is that it's worth owning the stock now and if it is expected to outperform the market in the future as it has in the past. "

One Wall Street analyst rates Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) a buy at the current bargain price of $106,700. Three consider it a hold and one rates it a sell. Yes, someone is on record urging people to sell stock in the company of the world's greatest investor. Their median target is $121,300, according to Thomson Financial. So if you follow me, the consensus is not to buy the shares even though they are going to go up.

I'm not quite sure what his beef is regarding the stock's performance. The shares haven't done much over the past three months but have jumped 20 percent over the past year.

Should someone who has the cash -- a very lucky person indeed -- snap them up now?

Well, Berkshire's Geico unit is being hurt by pricing pressures in the auto insurance market. During the third quarter, the company sounded a note of caution saying, "The industry's profitability is sure to decline next year – substantially in all probability – and Berkshire's insurers will not be immune from industry trends...We do expect, however, that our insurance results will usually outpace those of the industry and that our long-term advantage could be significant."