Let’s Hold Benedict Arnold Billionaire Warren Buffett Accountable

http://www.alternet.org/story/146795/let%E2%80%99s_hold_benedict_arnold_billionaire_warren_buffett_accountable/

Buffett has taken to arguing that his own questionable derivatives should be shielded from government regulators.
May 9, 2010 |


The derivatives genie is now well out of the bottle, and these instruments will almost certainly multiply in variety and number until some event makes their toxicity clear. Central banks and governments have so far found no effective way to control, or even monitor, the risks posed by these contracts. In my view, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal. (Berkshire Hathaway annual report, 2002)

They were sow belly futures to me. And contracted soybeans.

Commodities futures help to stabilize the price of food. If Heinz knows six months out what the price of tomatoes is going to be, they can plan better.

OTOH, naked Credit Default Swaps and a lot of Collateralized Debt Obligations are just plain evil.

Warren Buffett is a businessman, a highly successful one. That he affable and looks like your favorite uncle, or grandad changes nothing. He made his fortune by buying and selling companies and selling them. To do that successfully requires a certain philosophy...and it most assuredly is not altruistic, nor charitable.

There are undoubtedly some here who would shake their fists at the sky and rant about how god should be held accountable for all the deaths and atrocities committed in that supposed deity's name. And they would do this in all seriousness.

n/t

Moody's stock when they heard that the firm was about to be investigated by the Feds. The entire financial system is taking down the planet with levels of corruption unheard of in the history of mankind.

http://www.businessinsider.com/moodys-ceo-dumped-stock-sec-wells-notice-2010-5
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We think Moody's (MCO) should have immediately announced that the SEC had served it with a "Wells Notice" on March 18th, when the Wells Notice arrived, instead of waiting two months and disclosing this news in its 10Q.

The SEC gives companies and individuals "Wells Notices" when it it is gearing up to file formal complaints against them. In this case, the SEC says the Wells Notice may be followed by a "cease-and-desist" that would revoke Moody's license to be a ratings agency.

We think Moody's investors would have regarded the receipt of this Wells Notice as "material non-public information" (especially those who bought the stock in the past 7 weeks without knowing that the company was sitting on a Wells Notice.)

We suspect Moody's investors will also be interested to know that CEO Raymond McDaniel dumped 100,000 shares of stock at $29 a share the day the Wells Notice arrived. And that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) sold ~678,000 shares that day and another ~300,000 or so in the week that followed.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/moodys-ceo-dumped-stock-sec-wells-notice-2010-5#ixzz0nZ86XhXV