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The Buffet Backlash: Anger Builds At "Hypocrite" Billionaire Hiding Behind "Folksy" Facade
Two days ago in “Billionaire Bitch Fight: Ackman Slams Munger, Buffett For Profiting Off Fat Americans” we highlighted an absurd back-and-forth exchange between Bill Ackman and Buffett’s incorrigible right-hand man Charlie Munger who called Valeant’s business strategy “deeply immoral.”
That jab struck a nerve with Ackman who at certain times over the past 45 or so days has suffered dramatic paper losses in a matter of seconds on his Valeant stake as the stock plunged, and so, the Pershing Square chief fired back, accusing Munger and Buffett of essentially promoting childhood obesity and profiting from fat Americans’ addiction to “sugar water.”
As we noted on Wednesday, Ackman isn’t the first person to implicitly (or explicitly for that matter), call Buffett a hypocrite. Indeed, we’ve been keen to note just how convenient it is that the Obama administration has come out against the Keystone Pipeline on environment grounds while the administration’s friend Uncle Warren corners the railroad market. Of course the environment argument kind of goes out the window when Buffett-owned BNSF derailments seem to be a dime a dozen these days.
Perhaps the most poignant critique came earlier this year when Dan Loeb, speaking at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference in May, said the following about Omaha’s favorite octogenarian:
“I love reading Warren Buffett’s letters and I love contrasting his words with his actions. He’s a very wise guy.”
“I love how he criticizes hedge funds, yet he had the first hedge fund. He criticizes activists, he was the first activist. He criticizes financial services companies, yet he loves to invest in them. He thinks that we should all pay taxes, yet he avoids them himself.”
Now, Ackman’s spat with Munger seems to have prompted WSJ to take a look at Buffett’s folksy hypocrisy. Here’s more:
Behind the latest barbs is a paradoxical view of Mr. Buffett on Wall Street, where many people admire his investing record and envy his immense wealth—Mr. Ackman is a self-confessed fan who made his comments at a New York symposium to commemorate Berkshire. Yet many of the same people also say Mr. Buffett hides behind the image of a folksy, benevolent businessman while he pursues the same profit-maximizing deals that are the target of some of his attacks.
There is even an adage in the investing community: “Do as Warren Buffett does, not as he says.”
He routinely speaks out against the fees charged by hedge funds and investment banks, the tactics of activist shareholders, the danger of derivatives and the heavy use of debt by private-equity firms. He has needled Wall Street in 17 of his last 25 letters.
Mr. Buffett also readily dispenses his views on politics, business, finance and other matters that have little to do with Berkshire directly.
Take taxes. Critics often accuse Mr. Buffett, a Democrat, of advocating higher taxes while pursuing tax-saving moves at Berkshire. Over the years he has taken public stances that inflamed Republicans, including urging Congress not to repeal estate and gift taxes and opposing tax cuts on dividends. In 2011, he wrote an op-ed article in the New York
Timesarguing for higher taxes on the wealthy and pointing out that his office staff paid a higher tax rate than he did.
Even as Mr. Buffett has supported tax increases, Berkshire has been a savvy navigator of tax rules. As of the end of 2014, the company had been able to defer $61.9 billion in cumulative corporate taxes by taking advantage of credits and other incentives—money that Berkshire invests and compounds until the taxes come due.
Another tax-related criticism of Mr. Buffett emerged last year when Berkshire participated in a deal to merge Burger King with a Canadian company. Critics said Mr. Buffett was supporting an “inversion” deal that could eventually reduce U.S. tax revenue. Burger King executives have said the deal was driven by global ambitions rather than by tax savings.
And then there’s the Heinz deal. Recall that back in August, we said “thanks uncle Warren” on the heels of reports which indicated it was time for Kraft employees to do their part to facilitate merger "synergies” in the wake of the Kraft-Heinz tie-up engineered earlier this year by Beuffett along with 3G.
In short, Kraft Heinz said it would lay off 700 workers at Kraft's corporate headquarters in north suburban Northfield, part of a cost-cutting plan that would slash the combined entity’s headcount in the U.S. and Canada by 2,500 jobs.
Earlier this month we got more of the same with CNBC reporting that Kraft Heinz will close seven plants and lay off 2,600 employees.
Back to WSJ:
Perhaps the best example of Mr. Buffett’s complex reasoning is his move in 2013 to team up Berkshire with Brazilian buyout firm 3G Capital for several joint acquisitions. 3G pushes for drastic change at the companies it buys, stripping costs, cutting jobs and installing new management. The partnership riled many shareholders of Berkshire, where subsidiaries operate with little interference and layoffs and management turnover are rare.
As one Florida hedge fund manager told The Journal: “He has always been about: ‘How can I compound money at the fastest after-tax rate in a sustainable way?’”
And to a certain extent that's Buffett's right as a successful capitalist, but when you publicly deride others for doing in some instances not only the very same things you do, but the very same things you do better than anyone else, well that's a whole different story.
More importantly, when you are able to move deftly between the public and private sectors while influencing policymakers' decisions along the way, it's important you don't appear to be profiting from those policy decisions - especially in a way that seems to undercut the reasoning the government employed when explaining those decisions to the public.
And that looks like exaclty what's going on with the Keystone Pipeline and Buffett's railroads.
There have been three BNSF oil train derailments in the past 8 months, but at least the environment is safe because Obama finally pulled the plug on the "dangerous" Keystone XL pipeline...
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100% .. Liberal and loves attention.. yeah he is rich.. made some wild bets and they paid off but he is a hypocrite.
Energy Quote of the Day: Warren Buffett, Clean Energy Hypocrite?Waiting for the same anger to be unleashed on the thieves who CONQUERED America and in the process messed up the best country in the world >> https://goo.gl/bFYusM
He made some wild bets and they paid off because he is on the inside, and has a whole bunch of politicians in his back pocket. Why do you think the pipeline got nixed?? For his Choo Choo Train.
Warren 'The Environment' Buffet
Warren "Bath Tub" Buffet
Warren the "Titan of Industry" that never built anything but just shuffled paper around and did insider deals. Now he cuts moar' jobs in order to get dat' money. Being psycopath rich is just not enough, let's lay off some moar' middle class jobs or ship them overseas so he can get dat' mo' money!
"it's all about the bucks kid, the rest is conversation." - Gordon Gekko
I just still can't fathom how Becky could have banged this old fossil. I try to push the image from my mind, but thoughts of her trying to coax a hard-on out of this geriatric mess, using an unnatural mixture of gentle, hopeless pleading, ultimately supplemented with larger-than-healthy dose of viagra.. The whole image just really churns my guts.
Oh Becky, how could you
They always show Uncle Warren eating an ice cream cone.....while his trains are burning across the American landscape.....why is that?
'Folksy billionaire' is about as convincing as 'moderate terrorist'
Uncle Sam, Uncle Buffet. ... beware of uncles,
In particular,be aware of Wicked Uncle Ernie.
"He made some wild bets and they paid off because...."
To call it a bet would imply gambling, Uncle Warren doesn't gamble.
If I was Becky I would have at least sold my soul for someone under 70
"Bring me your ignorant, your intellectually lazy, your enviro-fascist, your Wall Street cronies and gullible pols yearning to be scammed. I hold beside my 24 carat golden door the burning Canadian oil filled train set I bought through Keynesian monetary policy to light your way."
I kinda like the sound of that, its authentic ;-)
The only thing that could make it better would be if it was a monorail
Logged in to upvote you, hilarious!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZBPoRwog00
Lionel Trains should release a commemorative BNSF Oil Hauler that derails, leaks black goop, smokes and shoots flames just in time for Christmas.
The kids would f'ing love it!
Tell us genius who that could be? The whiteys who stole it from the natives? Or the insurgent rebels who stole it from the Brits, or the goddamn Yankees who stole it from the Rebs, or the fuckers who stole it from the Spanish, or the Bankers or the Chinese or the Japs..... Wake up. Everyone has had a kick at the cat around here. What's obvious is the original ideals have long been trampled and it's been done by many..... Just remember it's we, in our complancey, who are the most guilty
Apparently the boi is...how do the politcally correct "folks" term it again...historically challenged? Wup...forgot to extend my pinky finger while reading the Emancipation Proclamation again...dammit ;-)
I've said it on ZH before, i'll reiterate it again because its fitting in this thread:
If you are a "rich" person making 1 MILLION dollars per year, it will take you almost 80,000 years to catch up to Warren Buffet, assuming you don't pay any taxes on your million a year income. Double it to 160,000 years if you pay your taxes. And you just so happen to be in the top .1% of incomes with old Uncle Warren too, FYI. Talk about income disparity....
This guy is the epitomy of fucking GREED. Pay your taxes Warren, for starters, quit arguing about the 1 Billion you owe the IRS. And quit telling people like my wife and I that we should pay even MOAR taxes. In other words, go fuck yourself Warren, YOU pay more taxes.
Saddest thing to watch kinda. Guys like buffet and soros in their late eighties and cannot bring themselves to stop or retire ever. Greed has all consumed them. Just quit and enjoy your last few years of life, there is no point or nothing left to prove. They could spend 20 million a day for the rest of their time on earth and not run out. FOR WHAT? OK you can compound money, we get it.
Sick and empty men really
They are a guild of psychopaths who insatiably persist until the Grim Reaper finally knocks on their door which means, given their prolonged life span, he's gotta put down that scythe and pick up a GPS
I'm to the point we should steal all these rich fuckers money, both right and left.
Soros, Buffet, Gates, Icahn, Ackman, Adleson, Kock brothers, Waltons, Lloyd, Dimon, Clintons, Kennedys, Kerry, etc., including all hedge funds, and all the activist foundations like the Ford Foundation, and use those proceeds to pay off the oppressed minorities and tell them this is their reparations and to STFU and leave the rest of us alone cause their ain't no more after that.
Asset Forfeiture laws are on the books. They have to prove they got it honestly.
He's one sick psychopath greedster, yet, Barry awarded him The Medal of Freedom. As that comedian says, "It's one big club and you ain't in it."
Yet, it's fun to see Becky Quick likes his leather shoes on TV.
He is enjoying life, he enjoys fucking over people.
They are enjoying their lives. Screwing up the lives of others is what gives them pleasure.
These are souless ghouls, beyond that of normal psychopaths.
You do not understand. These people are sort of like vampires except they can transfer into a new body at the end and start all over. The evil never dies.
And that fat fuck Buffett has the gall to complain that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Hey fat fuck Buffet, pay your secretary more, and stop hiding your money in tax shelters you fat fuck motherfucker!
Uncle Warren wants to pay more taxes than his secretary......he just can't figure out how to do it.
Monster Obama friends are some rogues' gallery: tax dodger Warren Buffet, CIA Director and ISIS weapons supplier John Brennan, Benghazi attack accomplice Hillary Clinton and now,today, the ISIS murderers in Paris, all no doubt on the CIA payroll. Of course, Obama's chief enemy is Russian President Putin, a dyed in the wool enemy of the jihadist murderers Obama hired to overthrow the Libyan and Syrian governments. Luckily in the American press, none dare call Obama a traitor.
And, seeing what Spencer Stone's actions prevented on a French high speed train in August, finally give him the Congressional Medal of Honor and arrest the Mossad agents responsible for trying to kill Stone in Sacramento. That story they have now of a lone knifer is as believable as the JFK lone gunman.
The Paris attackers certainly were not on the CIA payroll. They were true believers in the religion of peace. Or perhaps religion of pieces. Anyway, they certainly had a commander/handler who facilitated the weapons, explosives, target intel, and "escape" plan. That was the CIA guy(s).
If you have an asset willing to do things for dollars you don't waste them on a suicide mission unless it is absolutely necessary. It is far better to use people who cannot be connected to you and are willing to do your bidding because their purpose wills it.
The guy(s) who ran this operation now have a lot of street cred with the jihadi set. They will be able to rinse and repeat this action whereas if they had actually carried out the attack themselves it was a one and done dealio.
Last pic looks photoshopped
"...but believes net metering “increases costs to all customers"
I'm with Buffet on that one - pay for distribution, storage and backup or get off the grid
the vast majority are worse off because of his ilk
The worm is turning. When shills for the elites start trying to position themselves as if they are part of everyday people (and start eating their own), you know the end is near. They don't want to be caught on the wrong side of the blade, as it were.
I would be just as happy to pull the lever on Ackman as Buffet
I know Buffet is no saint, but how can Republicans criticize him for taking advantage of the tax rates and loopholes they fought hard to provide people like him? If you don't think Buffet deserves these money saving policies, then take them away from everyone or STFU.
Oh the democrats fought hard for those tax rates and loopholes for Uncle Warren too. Why do you think he's a big Obama supporter???
Not the point. This asshole talks like he's a saint and just wants to pay more but he can't. He's a 2 faced prick. Like al politicians he wants to construct a world he'll never live in but it's good for you and me
Hopeless naivete loses its charm beyond childhood. If you really think that team blue isn't just as interested as team red in seeing who gets a tax loophole, you're nuts. Team blue wants the tax rate to be higher than team red. If you think team blue doesn't want tax loopholes then ask yourself which team has candidates supporting a flat tax. It ain't team blue.
You are right. Buffet is no saint. He has teams of lawyers and lobbyists making sure that he can not only take advantage of the loopholes but create the loopholes.
I have a better idea. How about we get rid of both the taxes AND the corporate welfare? And open up Keystone XL so we don't have to depend on Buffet's trains.
Right vs. left, it's a false dichotomoy. It's all about the State picking winners and losers, with a parasitical class being able to buy favors (money or vote blocks) and borrow at 0 while the producers (everyone with a job or running a non-crony business) have to underwrite it. The fact that Ds or Rs happen to favor a few fringe friends over the fringe friends of the other party (both parties love big banks) is not so significant.
Only one upvote on that one. So, people want him to take advantage of the loopholes? lol
Time to institute the Buffet Tax. Tax Warren Buffet.
time to call a spade a spade, and an asshole an asshole.
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Wait till the nukes start flying, then,
NOBODY'S LIFE WILL MATTER
When nukes fly....
BLACK LIVES MATTER
BLACKS HAVE A MEDIAN IQ OF 85
Not to blacks. Blacks should should stop murdering blacks. Until then, kindly STFU.
BLACKS HAVE A MEDIAN IQ OF 85
To whom?
Attention whore
Attention DEFICIT
Not Buffett/Munger jobs to ensure that Prosperity is to be fairly distributed, etc. Ackman, Loeb and Others stand tall in at least they are not hypocrites in their money drives. X Gen and Y Gen (those from clositered biz academies and Wall Street) deserve their ICON (Buffett/Munger).
When he passes, I bet all the dirt will come out on him. I also suspect he's not as rich as people think.
He's probably a vampire and lives off the blood of children sacrificed in Satanic rituals.
Somebody quick, hold up a mirror in front of him to see if you can catch a reflection of pure evil.
Buffet's as Wallstreet as they come. Look past his aw shucks chuckle chuckle bullshit and he actually talks some amazing elitist smack. Fuck him too.
Yup. And with no excuse that he didn't know what honest was. His father, Howard Buffet was a *serious* hard money, honest money advocate.
"I'm sending you to the land where corruption has prevailed"
~ Jesus Christ to Myrna Nazzour, Syrian Christian Stigmatist- 1985
Soon after that she was sponcered to come to america to speak.
http://www.soufanieh.com/ENGLISH/eemess.htm#26 nov 1985
Excellent headline to this article. He always talks his book. Repeat; he always talks his book.
Interesting article about Berkshire in Barrons this week.
call to isis: visit this old fuck in omaha and skin him alive, ps please film it so we all can enjoy ..mad dog muslims how about trying to get someone of import and leave the common folks alone..??
"mad dog muslims" are usually contr-actors. If we can't fight these financiers and financial rapists, then all hope is lost. And, right now, it's kinda looking that way.
The Oligarch of Omaha. What a cutie little Crony Capitalist he is.
The Orifice of Omaha.
Hubba...Hubba!
Buffet made sure the Keystone pipeline was never built.
Just so his railroad can make money.
he always uses power and corruption to advance his agenda and what's good for him at the expense of everyone else. they all do. that's why things are so fucked up.
Curious. Why now? We've known this shit for years and suddenly the Journal decides to look at him now? Everyone in the financial services industry knows he's a corrupt hypocrite. Somethings' up.
Because the S's about to HTF and it's each person for themselves.
As someone said earlier, lots of "folks" are starting to hedge their bets so they're not on the wrong side of the blade.
The handle?
I have never much cared for Warren Butfuck.
Just the fact that Buffet has gotten that close to Fuckbama - and not strangled the fucker - is basis for hate and loathing of the old, perverted, Becky Quick stink fingered fuck!
BUFFET = obama's rump ranger..., what crap he spews!
Warren has always been an agent of The Great Red Dragon, since the day he started working at Goldman-Sachs. Can't believe it took folks this long to realize it.
The fat fuck took down Finova Capital Corporation which at the time (allegedly) was in part a CIA front for running products from Central to North America.
Some say it was a deathblow to the old guard and many bodies never left the desert because of it.
………….yeah, he has some J Folks behind him to get away with that.
World's wealthiest atheist. Please allow me to introduce myself . . ."Bow down and worship me and I will give you the kingdoms of the world."
Hang that fat fuck.
Amazing how the MSM sucks Buffet's cock, particularly finance media.
When this prick dies, it should all unravel quite nicely.
One of his nicknames is the "Wizard of Omaha" and of course we are all told that he was supposedly the most successful investor of the 20th century. How did he acquire this amazing intellect and predictive abilities?..... For starters... his Daddy was four terms in Congress.
It's funny how he always claimed he was going to donate 99% of his earnings (probably to the Gates foundation) and yet he is still one of the richest men in the world. He hordes huge wealth and then presents himself as personally frugal and even if that was true that would just make him appear even more like a Scrooge-psychopath. What a crock of shit, he must have the same public relations team that Clinton had or something because this guy gets away with way too much.
I wrote few years ago that Buffet's image is a PR creation.
He's actually one of the most corrupt people out there.
I have much more respect for the super rich that enjoy their wealth.
Take Larry Ellison of Oracle. He has always seemed like a rich guy and one that enjoyed that wealth.
Invest as Warren does (when the SEC allows it), do not invest as Warren says (he lies like an Obama supporter).
But you will have a tough time, since the SEC would send you to prison if you pulled many of the stunts Buffet gets away with. Unlike Buffet, you are not the son of a Congress member.
How is this news now? It's been well known for years to anyone with two working eyes, ears and an IQ above room temperature that this juiced in rich boy has been carefully managing his public image with his "aww shucks, regular guy" facade for a very long time.
I bet this money junkie fuck face would shove one of his kids in the microwave and hit the start button if the price was right.
I bet this money junkie fuck face would shove one of his kids in the microwave and hit the start button if the price was right.
I think that was done in 1987. It was a bet...$1 with this friend Mortimor.
The evil of the accumulators of blood money can not be under estimated. It is done at the expense of The People.
The fat slob, Charlie Munger, is always hidden away and Warren handles the PR side.
Very early on he read the book "How to make friends and influence people", he has been using that knowledge ever since.
I used to like him too.
Behind that folksy face and smile lies a Terminator - DC HRC 2016 model.
Money is power and power corrupts and there shoukd be a massive tax on billionaires - in the case of billionaires, orthodox/fundamentalist libertarians 'all taxes are theft' puritanism is in the far, far right of the curve, where it is simply ridiculous.
Take anything over a billion, and helicopter it to small businesses.
Why does no one suggest that?? Because it would actually boost the real economy?? Ideological puritans of any stripe, including economists, become context blind at the margins.
But tax them mostly To prevent the fuckery these fucks get up to.
Soros adelman buffet fisher saban rockerfellers etc etc
People who view the poors as fungible cattle have no business having power over any government.
Remember where 'ol curious George Bush Jr. flew off to after he was "told" about 911.
http://www.offutt.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123270742
Also recall the Franklin Cover up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_child_prostitution_ring_allegations
Connect the dots.....
Connect the dots.......
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-13/duel-valeant-ackman-judge-david...
The Original Fudgsicle®
i loved that little "Im giving every penny to charity and none to my kids" ruse. bill gates thinks that ruse took the heat off him. there are millions that cant eat with their eyeballs on him these days.
Start arming the poor people with 3D printed guns offering them a dream.
“Want to be famous…?”
I think we need to rip out his intestines on live TV and give his 19 year old organs to more deserving people.
My only real wish in life is to see Soros, Buffet, and the rest of the scum killed off. None of them deserve to die a natural death.
Mostly because they will probably live to 130 with all the gene replacement and transplanted organs they get. Warren and George are probably younger than me on the inside.
Ask yourself, what can't you do with $1 billion dollars? If you wanted to choke fifteen newborn babies for fun. I'm sure you could find someone that will let you do it if you gave them a billion dollars. In the sick world these men have created, that billion dollars is pocket change and the next time they need to find something even more depraved for fun.
It isn't a coincidence that the wealthier people get, the more sick and depraved their actions become. If you can buy your way into having sex with the finest specimens the world has to offer. That doesn't do it for you for long. You must move on to dominating them, like how you conduct business. You must torture them to the point that they fulfill your depravity willingly.
Men like Buffet amd Soros wish the could be Kim Jung Il. Actually more like his son. I'm sure Soros would like to execute a few people by AA gun for fun.
His wealth and power have nothing to do with capitalism. It is about bribery, graft and greed of the annointed few who have unlimited access to politicians because of their money. He absolutely forfeited middle class jobs for his little rail line by greasing the hand of the proper politicians and stopping the pipeline. He is an example of the worst America has produced and there is a long list of others who should swing beside him for his theft of jobs, opportunities, and right to have a home within reach. Just a crook, no less.
"Free Enterprise" is a better description than "Capitalism." The left irks on their poorer ranks by saying, "Look at those privileged few who have all that Capital - you know they up to no good." "Give me sum of dat mofo capital, Obama, you got da stash."
Free Enterprise gets to the heart of the matter - allowing middle class businessmen to survive because of fewer taxes, easier loans, and fewer regulations. Free Enterprise allows peeps to invest money into capital but the left has made the word Capital into a dirty word because only dirt rich bioches can use and gain Capital. Ironically, its many of the philthy rich who crony-up with, especially, the Dems/Obama
breaking news!!! berkshire hathaway has just bought ISIS. buffet will be chairman of the board of ISIS inc. spokeman for buffet says ISIS is the kind of investment we are noted for along with coke and pepsi..people just can't get enough isis.
I recall very clearly reading how on 9/11, Buffet and buddies were picked up at a Colorado Springs golf course by the military and taken to the presumed safety of NORAD...while the rest of us had to face God-knows-what.
My, how convenient he and a whole lot of his Elite neocon friends were right by that place on that terrible day.
All of that money and all he desires is to fuck with people.
I'd bet a large sum of money that when Buffett croaks a lot of shit will start to come out about him.
I've never bought his hamburger and cherry coke image for one moment.
We'll see.
Like most wealthy liberals, he cares not for those beneath him...warren cares about warren and maintaining his place in history as one of the wealthiest, which is why warren and those like warren are all about big government and the disinformation hoaxes necessary to perpetuate bad government to keep the playing field uneven and rig the game by raising the costs of entry. they're not big on competition which is why they pull up the ladders behind em.