We told you so…
We hate to say it, but a year back we noted on this blog and in a couple of pieces at Lew Rockwell that Mr. Buffett was profiting every which way from the Goldman bail-out.
We also noted his corrupt ties with AIG. And we refused to bow low before his genius at investment. We figured it was another American media myth. The man was an “insider.”
And so it has come to pass…
Aside from the nearly $100 billion in taxpayer aid extended to Buffett’s holdings — which include mortgage lender Wells Fargo and Bank of America, credit card leviathan American Express and the bonus-happy brokerage Goldman Sachs — his companies also benefit from $130 billion in FDIC backing for their debt.
“Were it not for government bailouts, for which Buffett lobbied hard,” writes Reuters’ Rolfe Winke, “many of his company’s stock holdings would have been wiped out.”
Buffett owns 27 percent of Berkshire Hathaway, for which he serves as chairman and chief executive for an annual salary of $100,000. He’s known for his frank and simple-worded investment advice, often laced with colorful sexual metaphors.
Winke says Goldman Sachs would have collapsed without government aid it received…”
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Oh these Masters of the Universe. Turns out that without the Universe, they are Masters of…nothing much at all.
I once heard that WEB chose to stay in Omaha precisely so as not to be corrupted by the influence of Wall Street. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but over the last five years or so it seems as though he has actively sought the fame and celebrity that has come his way. Ironically, it also seems that this is about the same time his investment results became erratic.
I miss the old WEB, the student of Graham and Dodd who could identify value from a mile away, buy the company and leave it to his managers to run. I don’t know where that guy went but I don’t like the new guy nearly as much.
I once heard that WEB chose to stay in Omaha precisely so as not to be corrupted by the influence of Wall Street. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but over the last five years or so it seems as though he has actively sought the fame and celebrity that has come his way. Ironically, it also seems that this is about the same time his investment results became erratic.
I miss the old WEB, the student of Graham and Dodd who could identify value from a mile away, buy the company and leave it to his managers to run. I don’t know where that guy went but I don’t like the new guy nearly as much.
Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!
When I commented on this long time back you mentioned ” conflict of interest”. With the trickle of information from the main stream media , the rolling stones , the ny times, its becoming increasingly clear , the conflict of interest borders on criminality. Everywhere we see the foxes guarding the hen-houses.
I have to acknowledge that you probably saw it much clearly at that time when no one was talking about it.
Now I wonder if the talks of systemic risk and financial armageddon and basically the whole collapse were engineered for nothing but just to make sure that the shorts that they had made were materialised. Doesn’t matter that lives were put into chaos all over the world.
However my gut tells me that another round is coming before the end of 2009.
Hey Kaus –
“borders”?
Criminals, period. Although it’s a bit of an insult to the average criminal who destroys only a few lives and limited property (yes, I know, morally it’s all the same…)
This is racketeering on a galactic scale.
Don’t trust the media coverage now, even…some of it is damage control….or spin, now that that the cat is out of the bag.
Personally, I’ve always thought the market crash in 2008 was engineered…
None of this was inevitable or a result of entirely economic decisions and factors..
And don’t believe the “they were stupid” argument.
Stupid like a fox in a chicken coop.
You know old logic was that you follow the big guys , see what they are doing , the Goldman Sachs , the Lehman Brothers , the pension funds and try to trade the markets accordingly.
Now when there are different sets of rules for the big guys and Pension funds have the interests of influential parties rather than the investors, when money managers pay themseleves huge bonuses while the share holders and eventually the taxpayers hold the bag, you just cant win , the dice is loaded small guy go take a hike , and thats what I do , spend all my money on hiking and sailing gear.
Not even being all cash is going to help you as they will soon devalue the greenbacks. Which is the only solution as far as I can understand to get rid of the debt and bring the jobs back to the US.
Kaus – in other word rob the creditors and savers and give it to the debtors and spendthrifts…
No – the debt must be paid…but not by the US government – by the bankers and investors who incurred it..
Of course, they will devalue but there’s no end to deleveraging yet..
commercial real estate decline is around the corner or going on right now…
So the dollar will be supported for a while.
I have always been a dollar contrarian and have held on….
Other currencies are not any good either..