Buffett supports Goldman as Berkshire shareholders meet

[cory777]

Source: AP

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett declared his support for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein Saturday, and said he has no plans to sell his company's stake in the bank.

Buffett and Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger praised Goldman before a crowd of about 40,000 at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting. Both executives said they're happy with Blankfein's leadership and said they don't view the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil fraud charges against Goldman as a strike against him.

"There's really no reason to think about somebody else running Goldman," Buffett said when asked whether someone besides Blankfein should be leading the investment bank. The charges filed April 16 have raised questions about Blankfein's tenure.

Buffett previewed his company's first-quarter earnings report at the meeting at Omaha's Qwest Center. He said Berkshire rebounded from last year's first-quarter loss and earned $3.6 billion as the economic recovery began and Berkshire absorbed Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2010-05-01-buffett-shareholders-meeting_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomMoney-TopStories+%28Money+-+Top+Stories%29

[Truth2Tell]

1. Maybe the hero worship on DU of the man

who's grandest legacy is the worldwide propagation of garbage fast-food and corn-syrup water will finally stop.

[Omaha Steve]

2. Two of my kids and one in law have worked for companies he owns

Your right on the money there.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. No hero worship from this DUer

And therefore no surprise that one parasitic billionaire is defending another parasitic billionaire. They simply have no clue the impact their sheer naked greed (naked, that is, for those of us who can see through the veils of quasi-liberal rhetoric they spin around it) has on so many many people.


They neither spin nor sow, yet according to their belief their god has clothed them in shining raiment and they are entitled to it.

My goddess tells me otherwise.





Tansy Gold

[rtassi]

5. Amen!

[chill_wind]

12. Buffett wanted Obama to keep Paulson on

for another 2 years at least of his new admin after the bailouts. Told me a little something about his loyalties.

[secondwind]

4. I'm going to be more pragmatic about this one, I think Buffett thinks that the Chairman of

GS should not be canned for what happened. Didn't Buffett lose a ton of money because of this "bundling" of toxic mortgages? I think he is just standing up for the man, as a friend.

I don't know anything about Blankfein, but I have respect for Buffett....

[northzax]

7. Buffett has some derivative exposure

Which is why Sen. Nelson (D-Berkshire Hathaway) voted against opening debate last week. He also sunk roughly $4b into Goldman either last year or the year before.

[glowing]

6. Hello, he sunk 5 billion into Goldman's when the economy was nose-diving.

He knew what was what.

[4dsc]

8. Warren Buffett is scum.. nt

[No Elephants]

9. Bottom line: I prefer a multi-billionaire who is a Democrat to a multi-billionaire who is a Con.

Granted that is not saying much, but I did say it was a bottom line.

Buffet is an odd duck in that he does not want any of his mooney to go to his family. His granddaughter was on Oprah. At the time, she was working as a nanny. She said Gramps paid for her college tuition and that was it, period. IIRC, that was more generous than he was with his kids.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. An article I read last night said he claimed he makes $15 per second off GS preferred stock

meaning that his holdings give him almost $1.3 million PER DAY. THAT is why, IMHO, he is supporting them. He is making a killing off of them. His concern was that GS might call back the preferred stock taking away the trough that he's feeding from.

[chill_wind]

11. GS shares just hit a 9-month low

with the latest news of criminal probes. And one of those probes is into the GS Buffet deal which alleges GS insider trading around the Buffett deal. To be clear, Buffett is not implicated in any of the reports, but he did real nice, and he's going to do what a rich invester is going to do-- get his face out there, talking up his investment.

Galleon Probe Turns to Buffett Deal

The Buffett investment buoyed Goldman's shares. In the days leading up to the deal, the firm's stock had slid more than 40%—to $86 intraday on Sept. 18. By the time the deal was announced, on Sept. 23, its shares surged 45% to $125. On Thursday, Goldman's shares were up 12 cents to $159.05.

The investment, preferred shares in Goldman paying a 10% dividend, has been lucrative for Mr. Buffett: Berkshire has reaped profits totaling $750 million.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703876404575200423282391104.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLETopStories
{/div]




Goldman shares hit 9-month low on news of U.S. probe
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63T2TK20100430

Goldman, which is now facing one of the biggest crises in its 140-year history, is seeing its shares bear the brunt of the past two weeks' developments.

Goldman shares plunged $15.04 to close at $145.20, their lowest level since July 2009. The shares are now down more than 21 percent since the SEC probe was announced, compared with a 3.2 percent decline in the Amex Securities Broker dealer index .XBD.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. How the mighty are fallen. I wonder if any of Buffet's portfolio will

be hit by this oil catastrophe. He made his pile originally by downsizing the workforce of a company he bought, then stripping its assets didn't he?

I believe the Thatcher family will be a little poorer for it, and what with Halliburton having provisionally capped the hole, I expect Major will too.

For most people, anything above a couple of million dollars, we'd spend like 'chump' change. It would ruin our life. But for billionnaires, losing millions is like losing quarts of blood.

[Bluestar]

14. No surprise here--Buffett is part of the "Elites" who run this country

Just because he claims to be a Democrat does not make him an upstanding citizen--he is a member of the club.

[GeorgeGist]

15. As I've said before ...

Warren Buffett is one of the greediest people on earth. Phuck him.