Buffett Buffet: A Pricey Meal

For months, some of the brightest financial minds in the world have been debating whether there is imminent threat of inflation thanks to the monetary easing and other programs sponsored by the Federal Reserve in response to the economic crisis.

Until now, we've yet to see rampant inflation take hold, except in one corner of the economy: How much it costs each year to take Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.A Quote) to lunch where the proceeds go to the Glide Foundation of San Francisco helping the homeless in that city.

Last week's winner, Salida Capital -- a small Toronto-based fund whose performance dropped 66.5% last year -- won the annual auction to pay $1.68 million -- or about 0.6% of its total assets under management -- for eight people to lunch with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse on Third Avenue in Manhattan in the next eight months.

The Buffett Buffet Year Winner Winning Bid 2000 Anonymous $25,000 2001 Anonymous $18,000 2002 Edward Jones Co. and 2 Anonymous $25,000 2003 David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital $250,100 2004 Jason Choo, Singapore $202,100 2005 Anonymous $351,100 2006 Yongping Duan, California $620,100 2007 Mohnish Pabrai, Guy Spier, Harina Kapoor $650,100 2008 Zhao Danyang, China $2,110,100 2009 Salida Capital, Canada $1,680,300 Source: Bloomberg.com

That large tab was 20% less than what last year's winner paid, Zhao Danyang - a Chinese hedge fund manager. However, Salida's winning bid was 67x more than the $25,000 paid in 2000 by the first winner of lunch who chose to remain anonymous.

It's remarkable how rapidly and steadily the price of this lunch has gone up in the last decade:

There are a few striking things about this list:

• As the media coverage has grown over time covering the winner, the price paid has gone up exponentially.
• With the exception of David Einhorn winning in 2003 - when he and his fund Greenlight Capital had a much lower profile than today - and the broker Edward Jones in 2002, you've likely heard of none of the winners.
• Until this year, a company had never won the charity auction (with the exception of Edward Jones in 2002 -- although this was split three ways -- so Edward Jones itself only spent $8,333). This year, the winner was clearly identified as the firm Salida Capital and not its individual fund managers.

If you're Buffett, what's the harm in all this? After all, it's all benefitting the Glide Foundation. Since 2000, $6 million has been raised for the charity. Buffett must find it ironic that lunch with the greatest value investor in the world is now the subject of such speculation. The only concern I would have, if I were him, was being associated with a "winner" who used the lunch for questionable purposes.