Warren Buffett Faces A Grilling From Investors

Financial Times:

Warren Buffett will be under pressure at Saturday's annual gathering of faithful shareholders to explain his worst year ever, with the usually adoring crowd set to probe the legendary investor on his bargain-hunting strategy, succession plans and views of the crisis.

Read the whole story: Financial Times

Comments

[PhilipTaylor]

Saving Buffett is NOT necessarily the Right Thing for the Obama/Geit­hner/Emanu­el Team to do!

Buffett is the #1 contributor to Senator Nelson who came out against government provided health care!

Nelson is owned by Insurance + Health Care + Pharma + Nursing Homes

Health Care paid him a TOTAL of $2,048,265!

Source:
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00005329

Insurance $1,195,299
Health Professionals $399,345
Pharmaceut­icals/Heal­th Products $258,483
Hospitals/Nursing Homes $195,138

Some of his Biggest Donners:

#1 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway $75,550
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $59,523
NelNet Inc $49,100
Mutual of Omaha $46,100
Prudential Financial $35,500
PMA Group $31,350

[apolloguide]

I am with you on the Ponzi charge. All mutual funds can be made into Ponzi schemes with a minimum of tinkering. It is just the way you do the books. But for a crime you have to fake balance sheets with phony losses so you can take money out to live on. Bill Gates says that Buffett is like his second father (Charley Rose 2 days ago).

[eposter]

What if Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is another Ponzi-like scheme? So many crazy things have happened this past year with insurance, credit card companies, Fannie, Freddie, investment banks, big banks, rating agencies, accounting firms, regulators, Chris Dodd, TARP money, AIG bonuses... What's one more name of integrity to be found out to be a fraud in the financial universe of frauds? He seems like such a nice guy but who knows?

[DailyElitist]

It's not; I've been over their books in great detail, and Berkshire does not now nor have they ever been anything but honest and fully transparent in their financial reporting. While I don't agree with Buffett's decision to take positions in GE and Goldman Sachs, they'll make it out of this in a relatively stronger position. Given their fortress of a balance sheet, the world would have to practically end for Berkshire to go bust.

[schatsie]

Read FREE LUNCH where David Kay Johnson discusses the SALES TAX STRATEGY... that is collect the sales taxes and then keep them instead of remitting to the states.... This is happening in Iowa and Oregon...Why do you think the former governor of IOWA was getting a retainer from Buffett?

[StephenJK]

Here's the problem: Buffett was blindside by the insiders. Buffett's not an insider and the meltdown caught him by surprise. Not totally, but, you catch my drift. He lost a lot but, he now stands to GAIN a lot. He'll hunt the bargains down and make his killing in the market. Business as usual for Buffett.

[desertman]

He's no more blindsided than any other insiders. Everyone knew a meltdown of some sort was coming it was just a question of when. Real estate valuations had departed from reality and there could only be one outcome.

[desertman]

It's a public traded company under a lot of scrutiny.... No it's not a ponzi scheme.

[eposter]

So was Enron. Public traded is no guarantee the reporting is accurate. So is CitiGroup, AIG, Bank of America, etc. etc.

[DC]

Reading his last letter to investors I was struck that he actually evoked the relatively high FICO scores of the customers of his manufactured home (read trailer) producers as an indication of what a quality investment he had in his holding company.

His weighting to the insurance and financial industries, which are undergoing a period of generational shift, might be a concern.

[swift goat pet for truth]

I don't know which manufactured home producer you are referring to, but a while ago I was looking into getting one. Some of them are amazing. Some of them are REALLY amazing.

Google it to find out about modern high end manufactured homes.

[swift goat pet for truth]

Only invest with perfect people.

Seriously, BRK is a holding company.
Its portfolio is really high grade stuff.
And just about everything went down.

And remember when people were beating up on Buffett for not investing in internet stocks?

[markm8128]

I am not surprised. Even I out-performed Warren buffet last year. He lost about $9.6 billion, and I only lost a few thousand $'s. They should hire me to take his place.

[vagabondvet]

Losing a couple thousand on your etrade account with stocks you bought recommended by Jim Cramer is totally different than managing an insurance company worth tens of billions of dollars.

[grumpygranny66]

You only lost a few thousand but. is that your entire net worth? :-)

[kareemachan]

I think sometimes you get complacent when you have too much success - or money. Maybe this will wake him up a bit.

[nycwerewolf]

Screw all the Buffet haters. His stock is trading at $94,000 a share:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BRK-A

He's a legend. Period.

[Carolab]

Down 31%, more than the S&P 500 index.

[PhilipTaylor]

Emanuel is jumping into the Wall Street Mess as Geithner is NOT getting it DONE!

http://www.hu_ffingtonpost.com/2009/05/01/rahm-wants-it-emanuel-tig_n_194307.html

[ejhickey]

why doesn't BRK-A and BRK-B , pay a dividend?

[vagabondvet]

Buffet doesn't believe in dividends because he thinks profits should be reinvested in a company. He also only likes companies that don't pay dividends.

[ejhickey]

Not true. Warren has made a point of buying shares that pay very good dividends, over the past year and he has received praise for this practice.. Warren's theory is that he can make better decisions about what to with cash flow. example: Brk.a's investment in credit default swaps

[imsosure]

They ought to lay off Warren, he's just a guy who tried to do and usually does do better than the rest of the pack. No one made any investor do anything they weren't willing to do.

[JDJase]

what a waste of comment space. If you don't have a clue what you're talking about, don't comment

[vietveter]

He has been doing a wonderful job for years and years.

He has made his longtime stockholders wealthy.

Everyone makes mistakes; Mr. Buffett has made fewer than most.

[Bitsko]

I hope they marinate him first.

[charger2]

Agree

[jdt67]

Why?

[bigsexyshaq]

This guy could use some public backlash. Some people are too liked.