Warren Buffett Backs Bailout Plan

The Bush administration's controversial financial bailout proposal may be getting a heavy dose of criticism today from angry lawmakers on Capitol Hill, but Warren Buffett tells us he wholeheartedly supports the plan.

He told CNBC's Becky Quick over the weekend, "It's what I would do if I were there."

Read the full story here

-OR-

Read about the Paulson, Bernanke and Cox testimony in front of the Senate Banking Committee

Comments

[ROBOT8]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx-JEyQMHJs

[navy62802]

What if we took the 1 trillion and aimed it directly at the base of the problem...homeowners. It seems that everyone involved in this crisis agrees that the problem is homeowners who are unable to pay their mortgages. How about forcing the lending agencies to give the people in foreclosure a more affordable interest rate, then use that 1 trillion to bring the people out of foreclosure. In 2007, there were 1.2 million foreclosures, so if you do the math, that's about $800K per household! You could essentially buy most homes for that amount. I'm not saying that we should give out $800K to all those in foreclosure, but it is surely possible to bring those househoulds out of foreclosure. Now that would truly be a plan to help homeowners.

[123dee]

ditto

[jsarets]

Of course he does! Berkshire Hathaway is, at its core, a collection of insurance companies. His fiduciary responsibility is to protect the value of the properties they insure. He would favor a highly progressive and redistributive tax code to allocate much of the public burden on wealthy taxpayers, but his central tenet would be to protect and preserve the pro-corporate vision of free-market capitalism to promote aggregate growth and to fix the inequitable distribution of wealth on the back end via taxes.

Which is essentially the same position as Obama's Chicago School Progressivism. If Buffet weren't so old, he could have very well been Obama's Treasury Secretary, but Bob Rubin's come a long way since the Clinton years, and he'll do fine, regardless of what David Sirota et al might say.

[Yorksgal]

And, if I was him, I would say the same thing - let's face it, when you are one of the richest old geezers in the world, it doesn't matter to you what the country does, it will probably be good for your investments.

I hear the White House is asking Dick Cheney to come in and speak of the need for this plan - if that doesn't say something is wrong with it ....................

[openhand]

Omerta

[GingerB]

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/09/23/bush-mouthpiece-admits-theyve-been-sitting-on-this-plan/

http://www.rollcall.com/news/28599-1.html?type=printer_friendly

"Fratto [White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto] insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough."


BushCo has been planning this attack on We The People for months.


ps... thanks to scooperss for the info!

[Heavenhelpusall]

The October Surprise they pulled out a little early because the McToken balloon was sinking.

[heal57]

No blank check. If we had Buffet's money; we wouldn't care either. NO BAIL OUT

[schatsie]

Buffet defers his taxes for years, hundreds of millions of dollars and pays no interest on the deferred taxes... (Wish my mortgage company would let me do that....)

He rakes in Sales Taxes in Oregon and Iowa for utilities and NEVER turns them over to the states, so the states have to increase sales taxes and he gets even more to keep...

He takes companies offshore to not pay income taxes on the Utilities even though these are included in the Rates they charge, but he never pays them.... He is as bad as any of those Failed Titans...

[ilovemydoggy]

Take a break from the madness. See the Sarah Palin Barbie doll:

http://www.Vaboomer.com

[trollsbwild]

As if he will not be able to buy up tons of so called worthless paper for pennies on the dollar, then turn around and make a killing on buying undervalued assets.
He is a corporate pirate. What would you expect him to say?

[Mattjoe]

Shocker.

[jcwtts1]

I'll take Warren Buffets word if he is made treasury secretary. Let him run the 700 billion - 1.5 trillion dollar bailout. But this team and bush got us here. They should not get the change to waste this money.

[Veneita]

exactly! the bushes have screwed enough stuff up. why give them any more power?

[PT6]

80% EQUITY in Mortgages in each DERIVATIVE in BANK STOCK.

We sell it back when they get back on their feet.

Banks should not expect to make a profit on this BAILOUT.

[observer007]

http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=103259

But there is another way to deal with this

[marytny]

to simple. Can he make it 800 pages long with wording only a lawyer understands?

[openhand]

WAKE UP Americaaaaaa....

[jsarets]

Not bad. But if we simply spend that $700B to bailout homeowners who can't afford their mortgages, that would restore confidence in the value of mortgage-backed securities even more than if it's used to bailout the banks that hold the defaulting MBS, and people would be able to keep their homes.

This doesn't preclude distributing shares of the bailed-out mortgages to taxpayers, but if we don't solve this problem directly from the demand side, then all we'd be doing is collectively buying shares of junk bonds artificially propped up from the supply side. They may appreciate, but probably not...

[PT6]

He would not do what we are asked to do! He would want at least 80% equity!

[PT6]

He would not put his own money in without an EQUITY STAKE.

This is crazy we need to follow his methods not what he says.

I am sure he will gain from this - after all he owns insurance companies!

We need 80% EQUITY SHORES IN THE BANKS for EVERY MORTGAGE in those DERIVATIVE we ar buying.

[getoffmedz]

Of course Buffett backs it! This bailout protects the likes of HIM!

Another dues paying member of the "industry of misfortune" or WE BENEFIT BY THE MISFORTUNE OF OTHERS. Besides, one does not have to be very bright to be anal retentive, aye Mr. Buffett? Hey, where'd my pen go?

[strangerinthenight]

Hopefully, your pen is use to sign off the $700 billion !

But seriously, I beg to differ. The last 3 decades of spent-spent-no-savings generations with the complicit of Repugs and Demog were to blame. And of course, Pelosi, the Speaker of the House had no clue !

The $700 billion bailout will increase the National Debt, and generations 30 and under will carry the burden of paying of the spent-spent-spent-zero-saving generations. Future generations will have their shares of peanut and jelly to survive JUST TO PAY FOR THEIR DEBTS AND EXCESSES. We will inherit inflation and the highest cost of living. Maybe in 50 years we will have paid off past generations debt, and just our luck, SS will have dissolved at that time.

I am just starting my life, and already, my future is leveraged and mortgaged. Still, I continue to pay mortgage, student loan, car notes etc etc. Supposedly, according to the Labor Dept, my generation of workers are more productive and more educated than ever. Our rewards: bleak future.

And guess what ? These complainers - spent-spent-spent-zero-savings-generations begrudge to save my generation.

'am 27 and very angry !

[getoffmedz]

strangerinthenight - attempting to separate from and to smooth the culpability of almost ten years of Fake Republican malfeasance will not work. Try to accurately define the source of our problems?

This is a Republican mess. Not performing a critical task while in office is a form of passive terrorism. Younger Americans will definitely be hurt the most.

Prediction: Twelve months from today 70% of our workforce will be doing something else. The other 30% will not be working irrespective of this still-born so-called "bailout."

Throwing train loads of our national worth into "bad paper" without carefully evaluating the effects is f**k*ng absurd.

Want more? Vote for McCain.