As Warren Buffett celebrates turning 77, markets are waiting for him to start a $50bn...

Happy birthday, Warren Buffett. The most successful investor in history, who turned 77 on 30 August, is still going strong when most would long since have retired to the golf course. Not only that, he is seriously considering celebrating his birthday with a $50bn (£24.8bn, e36.7bn) spending spree.

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Buffett is renowned for buying undervalued stocks; the private equity boom of the last few years, fuelled by cheap credit, temporarily priced him out of the market. The vast cashflow from the diverse holdings of Berkshire Hathaway, his investment company based in Omaha, Nebraska, has been accumulating, creating a huge financial arsenal ready to be unleashed. But only when the time is right.

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With easy credit drying up, equity, bond, currency and commodity markets in turmoil and the world reeling from sub-prime aftershocks, that time could be now.