The Warren Buffett Haters Club

After his manifesto in the New York Times last August titled “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett—a man who had seemed universally admired in capitalist circles for both his business acumen and kindly Midwestern disposition—found himself under attack. In the article he’d questioned a tax code in favor of the “mega-rich,” and declared “it’s time for a shared sacrifice.” A Republican chorus called on him to simply open his checkbook if he felt his taxes were too low. Corporate titans such as former General Electric (GE) Chairman Jack Welch and former American Express (AXP) CEO Harvey Golub expressed their disappointment, as well. Now that the Obama administration hopes to make the “Buffett Rule” official policy (in his State of the Union speech in January, President Obama invoked it as a proposed 30 percent minimum tax on incomes over $1 million), Bloomberg Businessweek compiled some of the criticisms of Buffett and his namesake rule—and the instances when the Oracle of Omaha deigned to respond.

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