Saint Warren’s dark side

NY Post ^ | 1/31/12 | Charles Gasparino

[Nachum]

Imagine a Republican president regularly invoking the wisdom of a multibillionaire businessman who had profited off companies with questionable business practices, and who law-enforcement officials had recently asked to provide information about his own company’s questionable practices. No question about it: Democrats and the media would be having a field day.

So why do we hear so little about the dark side of Warren Buffett?

True, the double standard involving Buffett’s business record is longstanding. But now President Obama is using him as a central prop in his class-warfare strategy for winning a second term. Getting a free pass from the press? The SEC recently questioned Warren Buffet over some nasty corporate cronyism. AP Getting a free pass from the press? The SEC recently questioned Warren Buffet over some nasty corporate cronyism.

Yes, Buffett is a great investor; his Berkshire Hathaway company has made him a multibillionaire and earned shareholders lots of money over the years. But in all my years in journalism, I’ve never seen a business figure get such a free pass from the media even when his public pronouncements are oozing with hypocrisy, let alone when he steps over the line into sleaze — as Buffett has done on more than one occasion.

[Nachum]

It's emperor Palpatine!

...Come to the dark side, Hussein

[PGR88]

I realized Buffet’s “country-cousin” routine was a sham when he arranged the inside deal on Goldman Sachs with the US Treasury and the FED days before GS was bailed out.

[hinckley buzzard]

Buffett is a great investor;

What does that mean, 'great investor?' Does it account for the fact that Buffett started by taking over his father's investment house, already a thriving multimillion dollar enterprise?

I mean, Buffett didn't exactly start from scratch in his basement. Maybe he 's like legendary Howard Hughes, another inheritor of great wealth, who, when you take inflation into account, never made a dime his whole life?

[MarkL]

Or what about the deal he got on Bank of America stock when the bought a bunch of it... What was the discount he got? And IIRC, he got options to buy quite a bit more at prices well under market.

Mark

[topspinr]

In my humble opinion, he’s a bottom feeder of the worst kind.