Posted on 09/24/2008 5:10:37 PM PDT by AndyJackson
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Warren Buffett, one of the world's best known and wealthiest investors, is betting $5 billion that the U.S. financial system is not about to collapse.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA) said Tuesday it will invest at least $5 billion in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)....
In addition to buying $5 billion in preferred stock, Berkshire also got warrants to buy another $5 billion in Goldman's common stock. Goldman also said late Tuesday it would raise another $2.5 billion in its own public stock offering.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Now Buffett has sided with the crooks.
Buffet doesn’t spend a dime unless he knows he’ll profit.
Buffett is a hypocrite and a vulture who profits off of other's misery and failure.
I would’ve done the same thing if I had a spare $5 billion in my no-fee checking account.
ping!
I thought he was just a very smart long term investor. He’s also made a lot of people who bought Berkshire Hathaway stock very wealthy.
I don’t know what to think about this.
oh...phooey!
oh...phooey!
And he is being guaranteed 10%! Why can’t the taxpayers be guaranteed 10%?
Why are all of the current bailouts designed to reward the grasshoppers among us instead of the ants?
It seems to me part of the financial problem out there is too many dollars chasing the assets. The trillion plus dollars that have already disappeared is a start, but putting money out there to only chase the next bubble is not going to help. Plus there is the confidence issue - Americans not wanting to risk their savings on the next Wall Street created monetary illusion.
So instead of a bailout of the idiots who got us into this, how about a plan to reward the people who work hard every day and are frugal?
To free up the credit markets, instead of throwing 700 billion+ out there, why can’t the government issue one million, ten year zero coupon bonds backed by the Feds? Have them pay 10% interest and only be sold to Americans who can show a Social Security number. (Limit one per SSN) The interest could come from new levies placed on the industries who have been playing fast and loose with our national heritage. If they can afford to lobby Congress for goodies, they can pay Americans to bail them out. I would guess that many Americans who have money sitting on the sidelines because they’ve been frugal would love the chance to invest in a long term secure bond that pays a decent return. Allow Americans to hold it as a Roth IRA and it would be even better. Money would stream in off the sidelines and be available to help with the credit crunch giving the US a ten year window to straighten out the mess that has been created. In addition, the money and interest would be there ten years from now to fund retirements, education, etc.
I’m sick of seeing foreign governments and power brokers always be given the sweet heart deal. See if you have easy access to the preferred stock they get. It’s time the American taxpayer got the good deal instead of the bill.
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Golden oldie from Free Republic...
The Ant and the Grasshopper
OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building
his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s
a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is
warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the
cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks
he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter,
the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the
ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and
starving. CBS, NBC, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering
grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table
filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be,
that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when
they sing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” Jesse Jackson stages a
demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the
group singing, “We shall overcome.” Jesse then has the group kneel
down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake. John Kerry exclaims in an
interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the
grasshopper. John Edwards cites this as an example of “two Americas”
and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his “fair
share.” Finally, the EEOC drafts the “Economic Equity and Anti-
Grasshopper Act,” retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is
fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having
nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the
government. Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a
defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal
judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients The
ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the
last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just
happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he
doesn’t maintain it The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is
found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken
over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful
neighborhood. MORAL OF THE STORY: Think Self-Responsibility. Think Conservative.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.....
After a short stay with his family back at the Ant Farm; he spent his time
doing some consulting and working on his biz plan.
Mr. Ant is back on top with a new dot com and did not repeat his past errors.
That is correct he is 100% OFF SHORE! He owns nothing! Pays almost no US taxes!
Mr. Ant now spend his spare time seeking gov funding for doing nothing.
Hey! He could lose some or all of that money!
What's he? a damn extremist! The taxpayers ought to be doing that. That 20 trillion dollars (8 trillion here) invested world wide is private property! Come on! Socialize the risk! Privatize the rewards. Who is that nut?
Time to short Berkshire.
This might tickle your fancy. I was terrified by this verse from the Bible when I was just a kid, because I was afraid I would be the grasshopper, and not the ant.
I tried so hard to be the ant, only to be called names by all the grasshoppers in my midst. Even now, as a very old ant, I still get no respect.
Check out Michelle Malkin’s column today—it’s on Townhall.com, and I’m sure her website as well. It’s the Ant & Grasshopper updated for 2008. ;)
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