He definitely wants us to think that about his integrity, his fans even more so and in fairness, he's pretty good. Not quite the sunday-school capitalism perfection that some would have us believe. Which can grate a bit if you've looked in detail at his career.
Maybe, but I’m not perfect either. The scale is just different. It’s clear that the standard for rich people isn’t all that high, so in the company of the remaining 1B+ crowd he looks pretty decent.
I’ve never quite understood the meme about Warren Buffett being a More Ethical Billionaire™. The defenses are always like “It’s not fair to judge him solely for BNSF giving rail workers one paid sick day per year because he also owns GEICO, which settled a suit last year about (among other things) illegally surveilling and telling employees to call the police on people that approached them about unionizing”
The "white knight" purchase of Salomon Bros stake to "save" them from a hostile takeover was a redistribution of wealth from the existing shareholders who would have accepted the deal to him & his fund. Is that evil? No, I don't think so. Is it perfect ethics, that's a personal ethical call. Colluding with management to redistribute wealth from the shareholders professional managers are meant to serve to yourself? Certainly profitable. Salomon managers kept their jobs and bonuses too. Buffet spoke about how impressed with their ethics he was and that being his motivation. Ok.
The purchase of the Goldman's stake during the GFC at what was it a 20% discount to market? Evil? Again no. Did he insist instead of just taking a huge windfall, on underwriting an offer at that price and throwing it open to small investors so anyone who would back the bank in the crisis collects 20% on top of buying on market? That would be hugely admirable, democratic and patriotic but less profitable.
Going to the start, moving Berkshire's pension fund from debt to equity. Did he get the approval of all the pension plan's beneficiaries for that change in risk? He was right, fine, sure. Was that his risk to take on their behalf? Worked out great. Do you want your pension fund manager going against the accepted wisdom on risk? Well you do if it works, but you can't take on the risk in hindsight. There are no shortage of managers who /know/ they're right and the market is wrong, like he did then. Do you want them to act on that with your assets without your full and informed consent? You (and I) do if it's Warren Buffet but he was not Warren Buffet yet.
On the standards of investment managers he is pretty good, as I said. Is he this perfect paragon of ethics. Well his fans seem to think so (and loudly) and they are allowed to. As am I to differ with that assessment. This is worlds away from declaring that Buffet is in league with both Darth Vader and Sauron to torture innocent babies to an early death and a fate of never having heard of Benjamin Graham. I would say he is far more on the right side of things than wrong and has been largely a force for good in the investment industry. "Which of his perfections impresses you the most?" Give me a break. Critical faculties are worth keeping.
Yeah he’s not quite Jack Welch level of dissonance between reality and his fanboys, but he’s hardly some superhero for profiting from the great financialization of the US economy. He made sure his book got bailed out during the GFC. He cheered on Wells Fargo while they opened up a bunch of fraudulent accounts. And so on.
Well yeah, if he wouldn't have profited from the great financialization of the US economy, he couldn't have amassed nearly the wealth that he has amassed, and we wouldn't be talking about him now, so the point is kind of moot. Let's say that, in the cut-throat world of big money, he is (or, at this point, was), one of the nicer guys...
And when he found out about Wells Fargo's behavior, he liquidated the position and has remained out of it. I fail to see the problem with what he did in that case. As a ~5% holder he (Berkshire) had no special control over the company in terms of micro-audits to surface such fraudulent behavior promptly as it was happening.
> As a ~5% holder he (Berkshire) had no special control over the company in terms of micro-audits to surface such fraudulent behavior promptly as it was happening.
Apropos of this particular scenario, acting like an individual shareholder with your 5% of a company's stock is helpless to exert influence on the board is not at all accurate. Realistically, at that scale, anyone who holds even 1% is someone you better listen to (not necessarily follow, to be clear) when they pick up the phone.
And that's when its someone who is also not someone who opens their mouth and has millions of followers who also hold stock, like Buffett.
Ask the railroad workers of BNSF about Buffet’s “integrity”. He’s responsible for them being rampantly abused. If you’re not familiar look up interviews with actual workers. They are asked to work insane hours and with little scheduling, and are unpaid when they’re waiting around. The (local) monopolization of the rail industry and constant lobbying against regulations by Buffet’s minions have let this continue to this day.
Let’s not forget Buffet also funded BYD significantly and is responsible for their growth, which basically is undermining his own country and European industry as well. Ultimately it’ll be responsible for putting masses of auto industry workers out of a job. I don’t see integrity as much as just basic private equity style capitalism.
> Let’s not forget Buffet also funded BYD significantly and is responsible for their growth,
What is this weird nationalism? Investing in a company from a foreign country does not make you a bad (or good) person. There is no moral duty to make your own country the most economically powerful one.
I don't like Chinese companies that much either, but if you look at the current US administration's stance on electric cars (and related topics like renewables, battery storage etc.), investing in BYD was actually a smart move...
Care to elaborate? In most developed countries, participation in the armed forces is a volunteer position and considered a form of employment. Even in countries with mandatory military service, the term is finite and the bulk of it is spent in training. As such, soldiers on the front line are typically active-duty veterans that are effectively employees. They can quit if they want to.
> Investing in a company from a foreign country does not make you a bad (or good) person. There is no moral duty to make your own country the most economically powerful one.
Maybe you don’t agree, but I think there is a moral duty to not make the literal enemies of the free world into a superpower. Do you think the Chinese government believes in basic human rights like free speech? No. Buffet could have invested in many other countries. He chose China because he doesn’t have the moral compass he pretends to have.
The BNSF people I’ve talked to have all told me about how much they’ve loved their jobs and what their jobs allowed them to do, including adopting children from Ukraine and get them out of a war zone. Maybe you should talk to more people.
The people to blame for the predicament of the US auto industry are the.. US auto industry.
Perhaps turning every vehicle into a luxury car and getting rid of affordable vehicles is not a good long term solution.
BYD is a fantastic investment, they are not undermining us, we are undermining ourselves and we need to stop being victims.
The people I know from BNSF will tell you that name stands for Better Not Start a Family.
I’ve worked with and known former engineers who left, took lower paying jobs in other industries and not one has ever said I miss it there.
Let’s not even get started on what that industry has evolved into with precision scheduled railroading and the dramatic increase in risk and real derailments that have followed.
> BYD is a fantastic investment, they are not undermining us
My point is that Buffet spent his fortune earned in America, on undermining America and its allies. He has effectively given a strategic boost to the CCP and its past and future abuses.
> including adopting children from Ukraine and get them out of a war zone. Maybe you should talk to more people.
Very few billionaires earn their fortune just "in America". Buffet definitely didn't.I live outside the US and pay thousands of dollars a year to American companies for goods and services, as do many of my friends. The insular separationist view of the global economy is daft and short-sighted.
Not all of us care about certain in-groups over others. Like caring about humanity as a whole.
Nothing wrong with any one investing in BYD or similar tech (vs any other investing). If anything, investing in non-“imperial core” companies seems to be a good thing to balance out unequal exchange and the global north and global south divide.
Investing in BYD is propping up the CCP and their dystopian authoritarian regime. Your phrasing of “imperial core” is meaningless. But the CCP is literally authoritarian in its political system.
To be washed in an addiction, in his case, money, is to give up so much of life.
I hope that his end is free of regret, and that his passing is memory of the wonderful things that he was able to build for so many people that he didn't even know he touched.
I'm sure that the way will be found to do this, as it will be for us all.
What a non story. God forbid people build homes in this country. Manufactured homes, no less, that are extra affordable, but the actuaries require higher interest to make the business work because the buyers are higher risk
