Posted on 08/30/2011 8:28:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Warren Buffett has made a career out of casting himself as a common man -- a folksy octogenarian from Omaha who also is the richest man on earth.
The billionaire everyman never misses an opportunity to sow his optimistic seeds about stock ownership and America’s future, while professing his profound desire to pay more taxes.
Yet when it comes to investing his own billions, this common man has little time for common stocks, but plenty of time for special deals that save him taxes and almost always put him ahead of mere mortal shareholders.
Such was the case this past week, as Buffett once again rode to the rescue of an ailing financial institution with a $5 billion preferred-stock investment in Bank of America.
Within minutes of the announcement of the deal on Thursday, the financial press was trumpeting it as a bullish bet on America’s biggest bank. Yet a read of the fine print on the deal shows quite the opposite to be the case.
The carefully crafted investment is a boon to Buffett. Not only is his 6 percent annual dividend highly tax efficient, but the 700 million warrants Buffett gets to buy Bank America shares have a strike price just pennies above where they traded before the deal was announced.
All in all, the package offers an upside for Buffett far beyond the deals he cut with GE and Goldman Sachs at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
Seen in that light, it makes one wonder why BofA was so quick to cut a deal that gives away so much for seemingly so little.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Buffett is an example of the lowest form of political pandering. He claims he feels guilt about paying a lower tax rate than his secretary, but uses government dodges to donate the bulk of his wealth to his pal Bill Gates. Thus proving, that they both believe private interests can better manage money than government.
Folks talk about George Soros a lot. As far as I’m concerned, Buffett is the same but with a midwestern accent.
Just got a notice yesterday that B of A is selling my mortgage to some company called Green Tree.
My mortgage had been held by Country Wide at one time. Something tells me Green Tree isn’t going to be any better than the other two lenders.
is buffet looking for an assistant?
Wish I had his brain for investing.
One has to already have the money that he has before one can get the deal he had with Goldman, GE or BofA.
Of course, unlike other rich people, his genius is spotting the opportunity to strike.
If it is the same Green Tree (Green Tree Acceptance) that company has been around a long time. Peter Lynch actually wrote about Green Tree 20 years ago in ‘One Up On Wall Street’, his first book.
If he`s investing in BofA then he got the inside scoop from Obama, again. Keep in mind he`s done thins before by backing Obama in `08 and donating the maximum.
The scoop?
Another BIG Bank bailout of their toxic assets they`ve never dealt with yet, mortgages.
He’s George Soros with a midwest accent.....he’s an ATHEIST and a TAX CHEAT!!!
If it wasn't Obama, it would be someone else. BofA needed him. They would have found some way to let him know that.
I SWEAR....SWEAR I didn’t read yours before I posted mine!! I SWEAR!!!
Bingo
Didn't Warren get a call from Obummer minutes before doing this BoA deal? Of course he thinks Obummer will bail them out. Buffett is a bottom feeding sleaze. He owes backtaxes over the last 10 years at Berkshire. He would slit his mothers neck for nickle.
GMTA
From the NY Post:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/warren_buffett_hypocrite_E3BsmJmeQVE38q2Woq9yjJ
EXCERPT:
As Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson notes, the company (Berkshire Hathaway) openly admits that it owes back taxes since as long ago as 2002.
“We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the US Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years ... within the next 12 months,” the firm’s annual report says.
It also cites outstanding tax issues for 2005 through 2009.
Obvious question: If Buffett really thinks he and his “mega-rich friends” should pay higher taxes, why doesn’t his firm fork over what it already owes under current rates?
Likely answer: He cares more about shilling for President Obama — who’s practically made socking “millionaires and billionaires” his re-election theme song — than about kicking in more himself.
Buffett’s free to back Obama, of course.
And if his firm wants to keep its tax bill low, well, that’s its right, too.
But it would be nice if this “pro-tax-hike” tycoon were a bit more honest about it.
Start, for example, with his grossly disingenuous recent claim that, as he wrote in The New York Times, he paid only 17 percent of his income last year to the government — even as many working stiffs who make far less than him coughed up higher percentages.
Fact is, unlike most other folks, Warren Buffett gets most of his income from dividends and capital gains, which are nominally taxed at 15 percent.
Left unsaid is that much of that is taxed at 35 percent (via the corporate income tax) before he even gets his hands on it. So in effect, he’s paying taxes twice (that is, when his companies actually pay, anyway).
Counting both taxes, his effective rate would really be well north of 40 percent for a big chunk of his income.
There’s more. Obama, and co-conspirators like Buffett, claim to want to slap only “millionaires and billionaires.”
But in 2009, for instance, fewer than a quarter-million taxpayers (less than two tenths of 1 percent) reported income over $1 million — and their combined bill was less than $200 billion.
Raise the top tax rate on them by 13 percent, as Obama wants (from 35 percent to 39.6 percent) and you bring in only another $26 billion, tops — and that’s if your tax hike doesn’t stifle the economy and kill jobs (which it surely would). Yet what’s $26 billion in a world of $4 trillion federal budgets with trillion-dollar-plus deficits?
No wonder Obama’s hikes on “millionaires and billionaires” actually start with folks earning as little as $200,000.
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