This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Buffettapalooza in Omaha
From The Daily Capitalist
I like the fact that our society elevates people like Buffett and Munger to celebrity status. After all, we don't have kings to adore. We Americans like and respect money and we admire people who make money. Ask de Tocqueville who was amazed at the audacity of poor people who thought they could elevate themselves through diligence and hard work. We may love our athletes and movie stars, but we listen to the ultra wealthy.
I've been reading about the annual Buffettapalooza in Omaha where Warren and Charlie Munger put on their annual show. Mr. Buffett is a very canny public relations person. Everything he says and does is calculated to protect his investments. For example, he staunchly defends Goldman Sachs and its chairman, Lloyd Blankfein.
Here are some quotes from the Oracle of Omaha gathered from various sources:
“My choice would be to have Lloyd [Blankfein] running [Goldman] this year, next year and 10 years from now.”
"I haven't seen anything in Goldman's behavior that makes it any more subject to criticism than Wall Street generally."
"I have no problem with that Abacus transaction. If there were other things that were hugely troublesome, I haven't seen them."
“I don’t have a problem with Abacus at all, and I think I understand it better than most.”
"It's a little hard for me to get terribly sympathetic for a bank [ABN] that made a bad credit deal."
“It’s hard for me to get terribly sympathetic when a bank [ABN] makes a dumb credit bet.”
“We are in the business of making our own decisions.”
"There's a lot of good in it, and there are a lot of things that take place on Wall Street that we don't like."
"[M]any feel that the ratings agencies let them down."
"What was sort of a sputtering recovery months ago seemed to pick up steam in March and April. We're seeing a pretty good uptick."
“Unemployment is going to come down. Business is picking up. We at Berkshire are hiring now. We let go a lot of people last year. American business is improving from everything I can see now.”
"We've made our share of dumb deals at Berkshire so I've gotten more tolerant of other people."
The only thing I don't like about the whole Buffett aura is that, while he's a great businessman, I don't really believe most of what he says. [Disclosure: I bought Kraft when he went in.] He may believe it but I think he sees his role as The Great Cheerleader. Like a lot of great men, I think he tends to universalize his experience. Because he is one of the wealthiest persons on the planet, people listen to whatever he says. I guess if I had to choose between folks listening to politicians or great businessmen, I'd go for businessmen. Except for Soros.
»
- advertisements -
We all know his record/position when it comes to things he "can't understand". So he stays away from tech stocks but has no problem putting money down in the hopes that The Squid's discount window fed black box algo/super hedge fund/front running/monopolist antics will be allowed to survive. I'm not nowhere near as good an investor as he, but one piece of advice Mr. Buffett: I hope you were able to quantify the legislative and reputation risk.
Derivatives are weapons of mass destruction or so I have heard somebody say.
Jimmy Buffett has more credibility that Warren...
FYI they are first cousins.
GS will be the absolute end of this man's "populist" reputation. Fuck him.
He's preaching his investment in GS with the same attitude as his other investments in the pass (with Salomon, Buffalo News, See's Candy, Nebraska's Mrs. B), so nothing new; he succeed in most but did failed in some, we will see how he will do in this one
I certainly wouldn't try to follow Buffet's investments, mainly because retail investors can't get the deals he does. Like can't-lose warrants in return for saving the jobs of incompetent senior executives.
Agree (and retail don't have the capital that he has)
Warren Buffett thinks, and probably with some level of reasonable credibility that he is the modern day J.P. Morgan (the John Pierpont type). I think he believes that his loan to Goldman was, among other things, throwing a life preserver to the U.S. financial system.
If I was 10 Billion plus into GS, I'd be lying to myself too.
...and sucking Blankfein's **** too. Now you know what Mr. Buffett has for lunch these days!
Beans or franks?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek3XKF2GcjE&feature=related
He's one of the great "something for nothing" advocates, a great manipulator and a grand showman. In other words, a con-artist.
The 'Buffet premium' you pay for Berkshire is far too rich for my tastes.
He's managed to lead what some might call a hippie personal life, too.
With one wife, and girlfriends who can't seem to find anything to dislike about his personal sexadilloes.
Man's got it knocked with quite a number of brain cells more than the average, that work like a greased ball bearings.
Doesn't eat right, either.
I think the words for someone like him are: extraordinarily, exceptionally, enviably lucky. Yes, lucky.
Mr. Buffett is a hypocrite, and you are an idiot. Drug dealers and mob bosses are wealthy too - I guess we all should make them celebrities and start listening to them too.
Gordon, my point was that I don't listen to him.
Spot on, Gekko!
Whomever penned the words above is as naive as the grass is green.
Buffet is a complete hypocrite, arguing that he is above having to capitalize for his counterparty credit risk exposure in the OTC derivatives market. So only Warren can hold financial "weapons of mass destruction" without skin in the game???
Exactly. You don't amass a net worth north of $40B by being an ethical business man and playing by the rules. (I sure as shit ain't anywhere near this guy's stratosphere and I've been keeping my nose clean for the last 22 years.)
This guy has probably screwed over plenty of people in his day. The only difference, and this is where he was smart, was that instead of being based out of Lower Manhattan (where everyone knows you're on the take), he is based out of Omaha, NE. Land of Midwestern "values".
I personally can't stand him. Reminds me of Soros.
+1 GG.
People are so stupid, listening to the advice of a rich men. He will say what he has to say, not what he thinks.
He's totally backing up his GS investment here ... what happen to his "derivatives are financial instrument of mass destruction" statements? Contradicting himself?
There are so many Berkshire Hathaway stocks
Can someone tell me which to buy long term puts on
Just in case Ole Buffet is protesting to much
He may have over bid his hand
Right on Gekko!
How about spelling his name with an extra 't' in the body of the post? You can use extra t's - there's no daily quota.
I must have been thinking of the free buffet they had. Thanks.