Warren Buffett says that the Obama administration is doing the right things

[qh4dotcom]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090502/ap_on_bi_ge/us_berkshire_shareholders

[ItsTime]

Warren Buffet does not want Obama/Dems to make laws that will hurt his companies. So Warren Buffet will say all good things about Obama.

[bossman068410]

He is doing a PERFECT JOB..........

For the

NEW WORLD ORDER

[virgil47]

Warren Buffet is a fool. People like him will be the first to be either re educated or done away with once the communist inspired leadership of today gains full control of the world.

[angelatc]

Warren Buffet has a significant amount of money invested in the stock market. What the hell else is he going to say?

[apropos]

He lost all credibility to me after he loaded up on financials and then told the government these companies needed bailouts. I don't blame him for wanting to make money because that is what he does, but he showed no hesitation in throwing his personal swa into the debate to use taxpayer money into all these bad investments. He's no free marketeer.

Buffett: Bailout needed 'to really avoid going over the precipice'


Billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Wednesday called the $700 billion U.S. bailout plan "absolutely necessary" to help pull the financial system out of an "economic Pearl Harbor."

Speaking on CNBC television the day after his decision to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs, Buffett, 78, also called on Congress to leave no doubt by Friday that a bailout would be adopted, or risk throwing markets and the economy into further turmoil.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-23-goldman-buffett-investment_N.htm

[Brooklyn Red Leg]

Warren Buffet is a tool.

Fixed it for ya.

[silverhawks]

He lost all credibility to me after he loaded up on financials and then told the government these companies needed bailouts. I don't blame him for wanting to make money because that is what he does, but he showed no hesitation in throwing his personal swa into the debate to use taxpayer money into all these bad investments. He's no free marketeer.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-23-goldman-buffett-investment_N.htm

Racketeer, more like it.

I have to wonder how many of Buffett's big trades could be tied directly to legislation that was going through the House around the same time.

[ArchPaul]

Buffett Dismisses Government Stress Tests, Praises Wells Fargo (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aocwzKPyyegc&refer=home)

File this guy under delusional...

May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett dismissed the importance of the government stress tests in helping him assess banks, and said Wells Fargo & Co. will prosper no matter what the results show.

“I think I know their future, frankly, better than somebody that comes in to take a look,” Buffett said yesterday of the bank stocks that Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire owns. Regulators “may be using more of a checklist-type approach.”

The stress tests are designed to show whether 19 top financial firms need more capital to withstand a deterioration of economic conditions, and results are expected to be disclosed on May 7, according to a government official familiar with the plan. Buffett said he judges banks by their “dynamism” and their ability to attract deposits, and singled out San Francisco-based Wells Fargo as a “fabulous” company.

“If you look at Coca-Cola today, for example, and just looked at a balance sheet, it wouldn’t tell you anything at all about Coca-Cola,” the billionaire investor said in a Bloomberg Television interview before Berkshire’s annual meeting at Omaha’s Qwest Center. “It’s what the product is.”

Wells Fargo is Berkshire’s second-largest holding by market value after Coca-Cola Co. and the biggest bank on the U.S. West Coast. Berkshire also owns stakes in Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, as well as U.S. Bancorp, M&T Bank Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc. Buffett has praised Wells Fargo for gathering funds at a low cost and taking fewer lending risks than competitors.

Competitive Advantages

“All banks aren’t alike by a long shot, and in our view Wells Fargo, among the large banks, has some advantages the others do not,” Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual meeting.

Wells Fargo has declined 33 percent this year on the New York Stock Exchange on concern the bank will take losses on loans acquired with the purchase of Wachovia Corp. The bank slashed its dividend 85 percent in March, reducing investment income for Berkshire.

Wells Fargo stock closed at $19.61 May 1 after falling below $9 in March. Buffett said he was speaking to a class the day the shares dropped that low and told students that, at such a price, “If I had to put all of my net worth into stock, that would be the stock.”

U.S. banks can’t be viewed indiscriminately, Buffett said, citing “real differences,” such as varying costs of funding, that separate strong lenders from their weaker rivals. Goldman Sachs, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo have “lots of equity,” he said. All three are among the companies on the stress test list.

Record Attendance

The annual meeting gave Buffett and Vice Chairman Charles Munger a platform to discuss markets, the economy and Berkshire’s businesses. A record 35,000 people filled the Qwest Center arena, its overflow rooms and a ballroom at a hotel across the street as the two fielded questions concerning Buffett’s replacement, Berkshire’s investments and its derivative bets on the world’s stock markets.

Berkshire, with a U.S. stock portfolio of $51.9 billion, has been pressured as equity markets dropped and U.S. unemployment rose to its highest in 25 years. Berkshire shares have plunged 31 percent in the past 12 months, and profit has fallen in five-straight quarters through the end of 2008 on deteriorating results at insurance units and liabilities from the derivatives.

Earnings Slump

Buffett said yesterday that first-quarter operating earnings fell to about $1.7 billion from $1.9 billion in the same period a year earlier. The figure, which doesn’t count some investment results, declined as the recession weighed on Berkshire businesses that make building materials and sell jewelry and furniture.

Utilities and insurance operations fared better, with Berkshire’s Geico Corp., the third-largest auto insurer in the U.S., adding about 505,000 new policyholders in the first four months of the year, Buffett said.

Buffett said that book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities, declined in the first quarter, in part because of losses on derivatives the firm sold on corporate debt. Those losses have since partially reversed, he said. Berkshire is scheduled to release complete results, including a figure for net income, on May 8.

Buffett and Munger have used recent meetings to promote Berkshire as a buyer of non-U.S. businesses and distinguish their operations from what they consider the sometimes reckless behavior they see on Wall Street. Their pronouncements reach shareholders, potential customers and ratings firms.

Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings cut Berkshire’s top AAA credit rating in the last two months, a move that “has no economic impact” on Berkshire, Buffett said in the interview before the meeting began.

“It just doesn’t,” he said. “We don’t use borrowed money in any real significant sense. My pride may be wounded just a bit.”