Help me out here, Buckeye T...tell me this is ok...I can't figure it out any way other than to think that we are being raped. To hell with MCG blaming Bush or the rest of us blaming Dems...is this the way we are being herded to the slaughterhouse? Is the guy being lauded as the great financial know-it-all just another greedy unethical shyster? http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1756261.html
I'll take a shot. Guys like Buffet know how to work the game; how to make money work for them. Emotion and empathy are impediments to success for guys like this. He is just as happy lapping up road kill as he is running down big game himself. A buck is a buck. And it's never enough.
...ain't that the Phukin truth while the rest of us just twist in the wind. And yet...there are those that just laud the Buffet's of the world for being smarter than the rest of us and deserving their just rewards for working the system to the edge. The rest of us suckers have too much trust that we won't get the shaft....but we do every time.
There's two ways of looking this.. 1. Either he is the 'good citizen' using his money to prop up these companies until the TARP bailout could give them a more solid base to operate from... or 2. He is a good businessman, who invested while others fled...while pushing the government to back his own investments short and long term. I know you can read the nefarious into his actions, but I believe that history will show that it was one of the two... if not both in the end. If you want someone truly ugly, I'd look towards the George Soros types.
I don't find him evil. I was just saying that, like all money driven buisnessmen and investors, he is emotionless and never takes his eye off the prize. He can make money in up or down markets, long or short.
Let me see....is this funded by some mystery fund....a stash of cash that all clever businessmen have ample access to if they were just smart enough or in reality is it our damned money.....the taxpayers and the losers left holding the bag in all of this financial crisis!
Far from evil, Buffet is and should be an American hero and icon of everything that is good about us and our system. Born of humble beginnings Buffet made his fortune with his brains, patience and discipline. An old school investor, studying under the famous value investing guru Benjamin Graham, Buffet makes his money buying quality, brand name franchises typically best of breed at prices below what his analytical frameworks suggests they should be selling at..... In that regard, his holdings will always include the "brand names" in out of favor industries - in the financial space, that would include BofA, Amex, Goldman, etc. He typically has a long term horizon and has owned those names for years.....given that they are among the largest of the financials, remember their participation in the TARP program was not voluntary. That newspaper piece was absolute trash.....the inference ridiculous. Given his value style, he will always be predisposed to buy assets on the cheap.....the opportunity to buy Goldman at liquidation prices was perhaps a once in a lifetime event.....our system needs the Buffets of the world and others like him to step in and purchase assets when the probability of superior returns is in their favor. Without the profit motive, the capital markets cannot work and without the capital markets we might as well take Corey's avatar and make it our national flag. Should not have Buffet provided support for the governments programs to stabilize the financial system and put our economy back on firmer footing.....is that a trick question? When Buffet speaks - or not - the markets listen in every corner of the globe. I fail to see how or where Buffet might have spoken or acted inappropriately or taken advantage of a situation or information that was not available to all.....if buying brand names franchises selling at liquidation prices in the face of government efforts to stabilize the financial system is somehow perceived to be inappropriate, I say where have we gone wrong.....sounds like yankee ingenuity to me..... .....as to Buffet's pursuit of worldly riches at the expense of all that is good.....you couldn't be more wrong. I offer the following: Stu, you have shown yourself to be one of our more objective and rational members and part Buckeye to boot . In this instance, I think you're way off base.
Not the first time...won't be the last... So you don't think even a hint of disclosure that he and his investors hold huge stakes in these poorly run banks would have been appropriate while he was up there pontificating that all of the rest of us schmoes need to bail them out to save ourselves???
I think the theme that rings a nice tone to the general population is "fairness". I think that much of the public is tired of billionaires and huge profits, and want fairness. I think the new administration is playing to that and looking not to create profit in the marketplace but fairness. I think of Ben and Jerry's when I think of what John Q. Public probably would like to see in the market place. When Ben and Jerry owned the company they had a rule that the CEO (them) could not make more than 18 or 20 times the lowest paid person on the payroll. Now that caused them some trouble in attracting a CEO when they wanted to step aside from managing the company, but I think that is what people want to see. Not saying it's right or even a viable solution to getting the economy back on it's feet or even sustainable. It's just what is currently fashionable. The Admin got away with firing the GM guy, and they are now saying that they will want the CEO's of company's recieving future bailouts to be continue only at the govt discretion. All sorts of bonuses will be verboten. They will sell it to the public under the "Fairness" doctrine.
Stu, Buffet's holdings are pretty much public information.....I would expect that if you checked the public record of his testimony, you would find full disclosure in that regard. I can conceive of no serious investor and for certain no professional investor that was unaware that Buffet owned all those names, and if they were unaware they need to find a new job for which they are better suited. Markets rise and fall on his regulatory filings detailing new, increased or decreased stakes in companies. His annual letter to shareholders is studied in schools like the bible is studied in seminary.....the notion that he was trying to prop up his portfolio on the sly unbeknownst to other serious market participants unaware of his positions just doesn't hold water and is completely unreasonable.
Stu, From what I know and have heard from reliable sources known to me personally, I believe Buffett is a man of high character and integrity. I think Terry in his post just above this one has described the situation accurately. Something else I am aware of from past knowledge: The Sacramento Bee for many years has had a reputation as a dirt-digging publication. Anyone can take a perfectly reasonable and normal situation and twist the desciption of factual circumstances to make it appear something other than what it is. I am confident that that's what the Sacramento Bee has done in this case. I completely understand your reaction, but I respectfully suggest that you consider the extenuating circumstances I've described above.
I am no populist...I think you guys know that...I have no problem with CEO's pay being appropriately high, nor do I have problems with billionaires, be they self-made or not. Maybe I'm just not sure that TARP was the way to go...maybe I'm just concerned that it was the start of all this insane spending...if it was the wrong thing to do and you and I paid and will continue to pay for it, then it just irks me that one of the primary and most prominant guys pushing for it had such a personal stake in our doing so. If it was the right thing to do for everybody, then kudos to him. I've never, ever felt it fair to fleece the rich to support everybody else...but neither is it fair for taxpayers to prop up billionaires. I'm just too stupid to know or understand what these "Gods of Finance" are doing with our economy...I just want to earn a little money, save appropriately, invest wisely, pay my fair share of taxes, donate to charity, and be prudent in all things. I try to not get too much into the blame game, but I do believe that a lot of folks in the financial and investment industry got very greedy and creative with other people's money. Probably this isn't an instance of that...I'll take your expertise on that.
.....that has been true since the dawn of time. Shortly thereafter, Christ stormed the temple and thrashed the money changers. It is in the nature of the human condition and is as inevitable as the sunrise. But let's please not stop there because that alone does not provide an accurate assessment of how we arrived at this place.....alot of people - on Main St as well as Wall St and Capitol Hill - got very greedy with other peoples money not just the financial and investment guys. We'd be in a much better place if it were isolated to just the financial and investment guys. Unfortunately for us all, it wasn't and we're not.....if we don't come to grips with that, we'll never clean up the mess in which we find ourselves.
I am well aware of the shortcomings of Main St. as well, thank you very much... People have been killing each other since the dawn of time, too...doesn't make it right.
Glad to hear.....many seem to miss that very essential element of our current situation as the bankers and investing class are lined up and shot en masse.