Warren Buffett says no textbook could have predicted the strange economy we have today

What Warren fails to mention is that all US Presidents spend more than the tax revenue taken in.
It's what we call, the National deficit
He makes it sound like Boss is the first one to have done it.
Obama added more to the deficit, than all preceding Presidents, combined.

The current economic environment is one that no one could have seen coming, Warren Buffett said.
In an CNBC interview that aired Friday, Buffett noted that unemployment is at generation lows, yet inflation and interest rates are not rising. While at the same time the U.S. government continues to spend more money than it takes in.
“No economics textbook I know that was written in the first couple of thousand years that discussed even the possibility that you could have this sort of situation continue and have all variables stay more or less the same,” Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick on Thursday ahead of the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha on Saturday.

How Warren works it.

http://blogs.ft.com/gapperblog/2009/05/why-berkshire-hathaway-is-a-tax-arbitrage/



Why Berkshire Hathaway is a tax arbitrage


On paper, Berkshire makes virtually no sense as an operating entity - it combines everything from insurance and reinsurance to steak houses and confectionery manufacture. Probably a better way to regard it is as an

SEC questioned Warren Buffett's Berkshire on loss accounting

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/SEC-questioned-Warren-rb-1660839747.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

The SEC has absolutely no say in Warren's world.
None of the investment elite play by any regulated set of rules and apparently they just don't have to.


The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission questioned Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in the second quarter on why it was not writing down large losses on shares in Kraft (NYSE:KFT - News) and US Bancorp (NYSE:USB - News), but the company insisted its accounting was right

In an April letter, the SEC asked Berkshire why it was not recording write-downs on shares with $1.86 billion in unrealized losses, all of which had been in that position for at least a year.

Given the duration of those losses, the SEC said they appeared to be more than temporary and as such should have been written down.

In a detailed response, Berkshire Chief Financial Officer Marc Hamburg said most of the losses with more than 12 months' duration as of December 31 were concentrated in Kraft and U.S. Bancorp, shares it had acquired in 2006 and 2007.

Warren Buffett says in future Wall Street chiefs should go broke - and their wives

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8044789/Warren-Buffett-says-in-future-Wall-Street-chiefs-should-go-broke-and-their-wives.html

Here's hoping Warren feels the same way about going broke, when Bershire has to eat all of those Wells foreclosures.

"People have a propensity to gamble, and it gets made easier and easier for them," Mr Buffett told a conference in Washington DC yesterday. "One of the problems we still have is we have unbalanced incentives for managers of huge financial institutions."

In future, chief executives of banks who need government assistance should "go broke", said Mr Buffett. Their wives "should go broke, too", he added

Mr Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, is a major investor in American banks, with a stake in Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.

Buffett to taxpayers: Get over your anger

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100924/MONEY/709249917

Well Warren, I suppose "WE" would get over it, if companies like yours (Wells Fargo) weren't benefiting from all those necessary measures that the government is plying, and that the "Taxpayer" is responsible for paying back.
You see it as a recession Warren, just a little setback for the timing of your game plans, but the average American views it as a depression, with little or no hope at all of climbing back out of.
Warren why don't you help alay America's fears and give all your worldly gain to help pay off the National Debt?
Maybe then the country could start to "Get over it"

Taxpayer anger against President Barack Obama and Congress is counterproductive because policy makers took measures including deficit spending to stimulate the economy, billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC.

“Sentiment has turned very sour in the last three or four or five months,” the chairman and CEO of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in an interview broadcast Thursday.

“I hope we get over it pretty soon, because it’s not productive,’’ Buffett said. “We will come back regardless of how people feel about Washington, but it is not helpful to have people as unhappy as they are about what’s going on in Washington.”

Goldman joins FCIC's dirty dozen

http://wallstreet.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/07/goldman-joins-fcics-dirty-dozen/?source=yahoo_quote

First Warren now Goldman.
Why the non-compliance?
Just exactly what is it that they have to hide?
Or is it the simple fact that they think they are to important to have to be questioned for their actions?


The firm is the proud recipient of one of just 12 subpoenas issued by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission since its creation last year

The FCIC, the congressionally-appointed body charged with assembling an authoritative explanation for the financial meltdown by year-end, said Monday that it subpoenaed Goldman Sachs (GS) "for failing to comply with a request for documents and interviews in a timely manner."

Is Warren worried?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Warren-Buffett-Forced-to-cnbc-3064696935.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

Just how obvious is it that the financial community is a tight knit little family?
Like the blue blood lines old, their incestuous ties have bred in the fate of hemophilia.
How much sway does a major shareholder have by the way? Is it enough to have made Moody bow to Berkshire's will?

Warren Buffett Forced to Testify Before Financial Crisis Commission

Warren Buffett's appearance next week before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is a "command performance," after he was subpoenaed to testify at a hearing focusing on the credit rating agencies.

Berkshire Hathaway is Moody's largest shareholder, although Buffett's company has been reducing those holdings in recent months. Several Moody's executives, including its current CEO, will also be answering questions.

Fortune's Carol Loomis reports tonight (Thursday) that the Commission had to resort to what Gary Cohen, the FCIC's general counsel, called a "compulsory process" after Buffett turned down several invitations to be questioned.

Barack Obama loses first vote on bank bill

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7637600/Barack-Obama-loses-first-vote-on-bank-bill.html

Does anyone remember that the FED window used to be a borrowing mean of last resort?
And if you had to use it your business was scrutinized intensely for having to do so.

It seems now to be just another perk that the "big boys" have access to so that the game can never be called because of rain..

Wall Street banks were given a temporary stay of execution last night after the US Senate voted down the reading of Senator Christopher Dodd's financial reform bill which will force them to hive off swaps and derivatives desks.



Senators voted 57-41 in favour of a procedural measure designed to allow the bill to be debated on the Senate floor, just three votes shy of the 60-vote majority needed.

But the delay is expected to be short-lived, with negotiations already under way in the hope of creating some form of cross-party support for the Democrat-drafted legislation.


The bill that was voted down includes Senator Blanche Lincoln's proposals aimed at shedding light on the murky $450 trillion (£291 trillion) derivatives market.

Clauses invoked include one which would force major banks to sell off derivatives operations if they want to continue to access the Federal Reserve's discount window.

The window played a key part in combating the liquidity crisis, with US banks borrowing as much as $110.7bn at the height of the crisis in October 2008, compared with $200m previously. It is used by banks as a vital liquidity tool, and not being able to access it could cause short-term funding problems

Deal Near on Derivatives

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703441404575206252252365076.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Oh check it out, Warren knew that Derivatives were weapons of financial mass destruction, and he chose to invest in them anyway and now he wants a break cut for his own past stupidity and greed.
If he does get this break, then the American taxpayer is still on the hook for every derivative transaction made in the past that still has yet to implode, no matter who it was dealt by.
So how is there any change to be seen in that? The loaded gun still seems to be pointed right at the taxpayers head.
What it all boils down to is that "big boys" shouldn't play games they can't afford to pay for, and should be held responsible for the consequences when they do.

Berkshire Presses Lawmakers to Roll Back Proposed Curbs, Avoiding Potential Hit

The provision, sought by Berkshire and pushed by Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson in the Senate Agriculture Committee, would largely exempt existing derivatives contracts from the proposed rules. Previously, the legislation could have allowed regulators to require that companies such as Nebraska-based Berkshire put aside large sums to cover potential losses. The change thus would aid Berkshire, which has a $63 billion derivatives portfolio, according to Barclays Capital.

Mr. Buffett's push is especially notable because he has warned of the potential dangers of derivatives, famously branding them "financial weapons of mass destruction."