Buffett Slams Bank Stress Tests: "Not A Very Sophisticated Way Of Looking At It"

Reuters:

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Warren Buffett criticized the government's stress tests of 19 large U.S. banks, and said he would buy more shares of three big banks in the portfolio of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Buffett also told reporters on Sunday that Berkshire, which generates about half its business from insurance, would consider writing policies to insure against a potential swine flu pandemic if it got paid enough.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[cjt1957]

Buffett is one for the great all time capitalist, His only real meld down is supporting the Democratic Party and Obama...

[smchp]

What kind of headline is this??? He said nothing but good things and you pick out the one sentence where he expressed some reservation and ONLY because he didn't know all the details.

[outnow]

Warren Buffet told us that the real WMDs were on Wall Street and called "derivativ­es." Check out which corporations have the biggest derivative exposures. Follow the derivatives. Then you will understand the bailouts, too. The stress test are a "dog and pony" show. Buffet has been honest with us to that extent. If the bank is solvent, fine; but if the bank is bankrupt, then a bailout will follow. But the system is on the brink of a meltdown because of staggering debt.

Banks need to be in the business of banking, not investmernt or insurance. Congress should create money and be in charge of monetary policy, not a cabal of private bankers.

Our society needs to change course and those in charge want to re-create the corrupt system that fed them so well.

[samlu1]

The world is now recognizing Buffet's role in the massive money-laundering scheme of 911. These muderous pysociopaths will never learn. Understand more about how Berskhire made Billions off of 911 by researching "Separation Scams" and insurance fraud. ps....were was Buffet on the day of 911 and what was he doing?

[drmrfzl]

,,,,you're kidding, right?

[smchp]

your tin foil hat is showing.

[knowhelpnow]

Well Warren if these very same banks hadn't taken government money because they were failing and should have gone bankrupt, then proceeded to give out bonuses and pay interest to the investors and pay lobbyist to buy the politicians just maybe we would care a little and they call this capitalism. They did this to themselves greed, greed, greed and they did it to our country. We should of never listened to the Federal Reserves or the Bush administration saying they are to big to fail, no one is to big to fail, I say nationalize the monetary system. No more money for these sick B****r's let them get their bonuses in the court system of bankruptcy.

[ncal]

He had an opportunity (as the banker) to offer his contribution directly to Obama instead of posting it in the press. That's how the stress test worked. The bankers were given the opportunity to explain the bad data. Explaining probably turned out to be impossible. The government, by the way, is responsible for consumer confidence. So they have the incentive to present the data with as good a spin as can be put on it too. Sounds like the state wants part of the action; we won't prosecute but you have to give some of the action back.

[dantanna]

not sophisticated enough? tells us something we do not know mr buffett. the government has acted so simplisticly since day #1 in dealing with the banks. if they had analized the situation carefully, many of them should be closed by now and tax payers money would've been saved.

[Savanna]

I thought that I read that he liked what the administration is doing for the economy. Aren't stress tests
apart of the effort to heal the economy. The headlines and articles presented continue to be for "hipe" instead of truly researched and informative information.

[tomasedison]

Last year exposed Warren as the mediocre investor he is.
The myth of the great sage of Omaha is dead. He rises and falls with the markets.
Same as everybody else.

[ntmessage]

Headline and article neglects to also state that Buffett has great praise for the way the Obama administration is handling the financial crisis and is thrilled that a Democrats solution can be so well executed. In particular, bring down interest rates in a responsible manner to re boot the economy in a way that automatically unwinds itself as the economy turns avoiding inflation. On the other hand, the typical Democrat manner in how the auto companies are being bailed out will lead to a British version of the auto industry, run as a socialist entity mostly owned by foreigners.

[smiththomas]

if you really want to foul something up let the government do it. if you really want to waste money give it to the government. federal, state or local

[tomasedison]

just look at our defense budget
they don't even know where billions of it just disappears to

[GardenerNorCal]

I think a lot of the disappearing money in the defense budget disappears through private contracts.

[adamsmith3]

It's kind of sad that a very intelligent man who knows the bank investment world more than most is quickly tar.red as gre.edy just because he gives his honest assessment of the stress tests. His incredible level of philanthropy shows that this isn't a sel.fish or gre.edy man. He just knows that these stress tests are complete BS in their standards, not to mention the fact that the results of this cr.app in, cr.ap out" test will only be revealed to us after being squeezed through the White House political filter. There is much legitimacy to his criti.cism­. You can stop treating the President's administration as though they are your immediate family and automatically dem.onize anyone who has a legitimate complaint about what they do. Buffet is already one of the richest men in the world, has no interest in political office, and has the administration in power of whom he supported, so what would he possibly have to gain for one substantive criticism?

[max]

NATIONALIZE!!!!!!! IT'S THE ONLY WAY FORWARD,,

[knowhelpnow]

Here, here I will agreed to that, take back our monetary system,

[desertman]

A lot of people on here are green eyed with envy. If you had the foresight and intelligence to make his fortune he had you'd have a different opinion. It's all sort of humorous.

[Jackalheadedgod]

Among the investor class Buffet is king, and as king he is heads and shoulders above most. His has been a business of good sense and transparency and a seeming acknowledgment that his responsibilities as a titan lay beyond mere finance. He seems to understand the necessity to pull Wall Street back to reality and his towering philanthropy speaks for itself. And most tellingly, he too was blindsided in the sudden collapse of and by the banksters. That the slaughter affected Berkshire in a pronounced way says scaled down Buffet is most like us and not at all like the folks in lower Manhattan. It may something to glean some hope from.

Cheers,
Jack