Warren Buffett, dubbed the Oracle of Omaha by Wall Street, is making his voice heard these days.

The billionaire investor is out talking to cable TV anchors. To magazines. To shareholders. To Congress. To foreign investors. To a former Wall Street analyst who is writing a book about him.

He's generating newsy sound bites at press conferences. On airplanes. In impromptu TV interviews outside his home. Even in faraway places such as China, South Korea and major cities in the euro zone, where he just got back from a "European Tour."

He's even popped up in a CNBC documentary, The Billionaire Next Door: All Access, which delves into all things Buffett. Not to mention a recent guest appearance on the daytime soap opera All My Children.

And, as in the unforgettable E.F. Hutton TV ad, people are listening to what Buffett has to say.

Indeed, with the financial world in turmoil, Buffett mania is in full swing. "He's the rock star of our industry," says Edward Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. "If there was a rating agency for investment gurus, Buffett would be rated triple A."

So what is Buffett talking about? Pretty much everything. His investing secrets (don't buy what you don't understand). The election (Obama is his choice). The economy (the U.S. is in recession). Interest rates (no need for more cuts). Deals (he's always on the prowl). The housing slump (more pain ahead). The Bear Stearns bailout (it averted a financial meltdown). The stimulus package (use the cash to pay down debt). The credit crisis (the effects are far from over). The dollar (its value will fall more). Succession plans at his holding company Berkshire Hathaway (there's a short list of candidates). Taxes (the rich should pay more).

But unlike rock icons such as Bono and Mick Jagger, the maestro of the financial world has had a history of keeping a low profile. "Going back five or 10 years, seeing an interview with Buffett on TV or in the newspaper was very unusual," says Vahan Janjigian, author of Even Buffett Isn't Perfect: What You Can — and Can't — Learn from the World's Greatest Investor. "Now he seems to be in the media all the time."

Buffett in the past has tended to share his thoughts only on specific occasions, such as his annual shareholder meeting, known as the Woodstock of Capitalism; his folksy letter to shareholders, which is to annual reports what Garrison Keillor's The News from Lake Wobegon is to live radio; or news conferences to announce big deals or jaw-dropping Buffett-esque stories such as two years ago when he told the world he will give away the bulk of his wealth — estimated at $62 billion by Forbes— to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Making his fortune

Buffett made his fortune at Berkshire Hathaway, which is dominated by property and casualty insurers, buying companies with easy-to-understand business models and consistent profit streams that make basic products such as paint, bricks and carpeting. In May, he put up $6.5 billion to help finance chocolate giant Mars' takeover of chewing-gum-maker Wrigley.

Buffett also is an astute long-term stock investor and has amassed a fortune investing in brand-name American companies that sell products that dominate their industries year after year, such as Coca-Cola, American Express and Procter & Gamble. Buffett is an avowed value investor, who buys only when the price is fair, or below what he thinks it is worth.

So why has the formerly reticent investment superstar suddenly emerged as a 24/7 media go-to guy? And why does what he has to say carry far more weight than any other businessman on the planet?

To find out, USA TODAY asked more than a dozen Buffett experts, including traders who track what he buys and sells, authors who have written books about him, academics who have studied him, bloggers who blog about him, and analysts who cover his company.

Five reasons he is talking

•He is a news media favorite in turbulent times. When the financial system suffers a major trauma or is on the brink of collapse — as it was at the height of the credit crisis in mid-March when investment bank Bear Stearns imploded — the bright lights and microphones are turned on Buffett.

Not only is his investment wisdom in demand, he also has the requisite credibility, experience and track record to act as a calming influence on the masses.

"In turbulent times, he is kind of an oasis of common sense and tranquility," says Michael Holland, a New York-based money manager who worked for Buffett in the early '90s after Buffett stepped in to rescue scandal-plagued Salomon Bros.

But unlike faceless Wall Street executives, Buffett has name recognition on par with global icons such as Tiger Woods, Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey.

"Outside of Wall Street, if you asked most people to name three great investors, Buffett is likely to be the only one they can come up with," says Marc Friedfertig, author of The Electronic Day Trader.

•He is shaping and preserving his legacy. Buffett is 77 and nearing the end of his career. Succession plans for Berkshire are already underway, though Buffett has said he is not yet ready to bow out. That leads Buffett watchers to speculate that he is upping his media presence to cement his legacy.

"Legacy is very important to giants of business," says Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of strategy and leadership at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. "It is natural for someone in the latter stages of an illustrious career to try to manage the exit from the scene. (Buffett likely) wants to provide his point of view. He doesn't want to leave it up to others."

For most of his career, Buffett did leave it to others. He rejects press interviews far more than he accepts. (In fact, for this article, Buffett declined requests for an interview except for an e-mail response at deadline.) Until very recently, he hasn't collaborated with authors who wrote books about him or his investment strategy. But that is about to change. In late 2005, he agreed to cooperate on a biography written by former Morgan Stanley insurance analyst Alice Schroeder, titled The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. The book will be released in September.

•He is scouring the globe for deals. Ever since Buffett paid $4 billion in May 2006 for an 80% stake in Iscar Metalworking, a family-owned Israeli toolmaker — his first purchase of a non-U.S. company — he's been looking to diversify Berkshire's revenue stream outside the USA and exploit global opportunities.

Buffett's recent shopping trip to Europe, his first, which included stops in Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy, was his way of "introducing himself" to well-run businesses that might be open to a friendly deal with Berkshire, says Janjigian. "His trip to Europe sends the message loud and clear that if (business owners there) are interested in selling their companies, he is interested in taking a look," he says. Buffett acknowledged as much at a May 19 press conference in Frankfurt, where he told reporters he is interested in buying European companies and that his very public trip was intended to boost the profile of Berkshire, which has cult status back home.

•He is Berkshire; he is the brand. Turning Berkshire, which is based in Middle America and has a U.S.-centric focus, into a global brand is a PR job only Buffett can do, says Andrew Kilpatrick, who wrote Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett. Buffett is committed to delivering value to his shareholders, many of whom are millionaires by virtue of their belief in Buffett's investment acumen.

"Berkshire is well known in Omaha but less known abroad," says Kilpatrick. "Berkshire's biggest asset is Buffett. His brain. His personality. He is the international face of Berkshire — a walking advertisement."

At Berkshire's annual meeting last month, for example, Buffett made a point of welcoming his global shareholders and held a separate press conference for foreign press. Similarly, last fall Buffett trekked to China and South Korea in search of new business contacts and deals. He invited a CNBC reporter along to report firsthand on his new global ambitions.

•He is giving back by sharing his wisdom. If Buffett hadn't been born with the special investment DNA that made him wealthy, he might have been a teacher. He's not just smart. He has the rare ability to translate arcane financial concepts into easy-to-understand language. "His gift is distilling things into plain English," says Andy Kern, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Missouri-Columbia who teaches a class called The Investment Strategies of Warren Buffett and writes a blog called Berkshire Ruminations.

Buffett is also willing to pass along his knowledge to investment novices. Each year, he educates investors by sharing his insights in his fun-to-read and easy-to-understand essays on investing that masquerade as his annual report to shareholders. His investment maxims ("Only buy stocks of companies you understand," "Buy businesses not stocks," "Buy when people are fearful; sell when people are greedy") are staples of his public statements. For years, he has invited MBA students from top business schools to Omaha to share his investing secrets with them.

"He's always been big on sharing his knowledge. He is absolutely eager to answer any and all questions," says Kern, who has accompanied his students to meet Buffett three times since 2005. "He's the best investor ever. So who better to get advice from?"

Or, just maybe, Buffett enjoys the adulation, says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital: "Buffett can buy whatever he wants. But people adoring him and valuing his advice is stuff you just can't buy."

Buffett won't dispute any of the theories on why he has suddenly emerged, with all due respect to Howard Stern, as the real king of all media.

In his e-mail to USA TODAY, Buffett wrote, "Someone once said the word 'motivation' should never be used in the singular. Some combination of motives always exists and it's impossible for anyone to quantify the proportion of each that is involved in any given act. So to your five items the answer is probably 'all of the above.' "

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