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Buffett Says Beware of Bonds, Buy Stocks

May 8, 2013
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

Billionaire investing success Warren Buffett does not like owning bonds at this point, and he thinks the average investor should avoid them as well.

The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, major investment conglomerate, believes that individual investors should have plenty of cash on hand so they are comfortable just in case something unexpected happens.

He also believes that they should invest the rest of their money in stocks, even though the price of stocks has risen quite higher than they were years ago when the Great Recession first hit.

On Monday while giving an interview on CNBC, Buffett told the world that bonds are a terrible investment at the current time, and he also mentioned that long-term bond owners may see large losses once interest rates eventually rise again.

The Oracle of Omaha also said that stocks are selling for very reasonable prices generally even though the Dow Jones Industrial average is seeing record high levels, along with the S&P 500 index.

Buffett, 82 years old, also mentioned that he doesn’t have any plans to retire in the near future, and he also believes the efforts of the Federal Reserve, with keeping interest rates low, have helped the stock market. Income improvements continue to play a role for stocks as well.

Buffett is a continued fan of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and he mentions that he believes bond prices are artificially inflated because of the stimulus that is ongoing from the Federal Reserve. The stimulus is $85 billion worth of bonds being bought every month, which keeps the interest rates at a low level. At this time, bond yields are near historic lows, and they move inversely to prices.

On Monday, Buffett gave interviews to Fox Business News and CNBC after Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting this past weekend. It was a star-studded event.

At the time of this writing, Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 80 companies and has large investments in IBM, Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo, as well as other iconic brands.

Buffett also reiterated his support of Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan Chase chairman and CEO. He said that Chase has the right person running the show, and he also owns the stock as part of his personal portfolio.

Buffett also believes that Berkshire Hathaway will own a stake in H.J. Heinz – the ketchup maker – forever, and he said that he didn’t have any problem taking on 3G Capital as a partner. They are the Brazilian investment firm that split the bill for H.J. Heinz. He also hopes that the Berkshire Hathaway stake in Heinz will grow as time goes by.

He was also questioned about the way the Heinz deal was structured. People wonder if the 50% split is a change in the way Berkshire Hathaway will invest and do business from now on. Berkshire Hathaway typically buys a company outright, and they let the company run without any intervention whatsoever.

3G Capital is not your typical private equity firm, said Buffett, since they put a large amount of their own money in deals, and they also run businesses.

Buffett even mentioned that Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad’s traffic is picking up, but it’s probably going to haul fewer carloads than it did before the recent recession.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe “has been a terrific acquisition for Berkshire,” said Buffett.

BNSF contributed $798 million to Berkshire Hathaway’s $4.9 billion profit for the first quarter, which the company reported on Friday. Berkshire Hathaway’s profits rose by over 51%, beating last year’s net income of $3.3 billion by a wide margin.

Does Rap Genius Hate Warren Buffett?

Feb 25, 2013
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

On February 21, 2013, cofounder of Rap Genius Mahbod Moghadam started up a strange feud with Warren Buffett, billionaire investor, when he tweeted from his handle @rapgenius this extremely profane message: “WARREN BUFFETT CAN SUCK MY ____.” Sending out offending tweets to those people well known in the media is nothing new, but it is rather surprising when it comes from one of the creators of a largely popular website that just received a $15 million injection in venture capital. People will pay attention to these things.

Then just a few hours later, Moghadam announced that he is holding a Warren Buffett diss track contest on Rap Genius. The contestants have to post original lyrics that badmouth Berkshire Hathaway’s 82-year-old Chairman and CEO. The winner of the contest receives a Rap Genius T-shirt. It looks like a $15 million venture capital injection didn’t do anything to improve the contest prizes! Feel free to make fun of Mark Zuckerberg as much as you want for his horrible fashion sense. For whatever reason, Moghadam looks to have taken the role of the eccentric tech entrepreneur to a strange and uncomfortable new level.

Nitasha Tiku, writer for BetaBeat published a very thorough article in regards to the strange vendetta, where she included a Google chat interview with the eccentric entrepreneur, who says of Warren Buffett during the interview, “from a philosophical perspective I hate that fool… He brags about eating at mcdonalds [sic] I loathe him.”

It turns out that Moghadam’s hatred of Warren Buffett started a few years back when Berkshire Hathaway took back their internship offer when they discovered that Moghadam wrote a blog post belittling one of their clients. And another thing, Warren Buffett is friends with his ex-girlfriend’s mother, which could also have been part of the reason he landed the internship to begin with.

This contest definitely has the sense of a public relations stunt, but it certainly feels like the bad blood is for real. There have been commenters on the message boards defending Warren Buffett because he supports higher taxes for the rich. Then again, others have bashed Moghadam because he’s a “bad publicity troll.”

So far, only a few entries have been made into the diss track contest, and all of the entries are poor. Take a look at one entry courtesy of a Rap Genius commenter going by the name jewlove: “the wizard of Omaha? Ha ha/Creating economic blizzards/and a buzzard feasting off the cadavers/of the common folk, with geico.” I can only imagine that the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur both rolling over in their graves.

Far as I can tell, this is the first hip-hop beef Warren Buffett has been involved in. Although he does have a tendency to show up in rap lyrics every once in a while. He hasn’t responded to this as of yet, most likely because he’s so busy acquiring H.J. Heinz Co., using the ketchup company as leverage and generally being an all-around nice guy. But if Warren buffet does choose to reply, it might be in his best interest to let Jamie Dimon take over as his hype man and have Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke officiate a charitable rap battle.

Moghadam probably thinks that his hip-hop fans are going to give him massive credit for bashing the billionaire investor in this crazy contest. But let’s not forget that he’s up against a guy who threw up the diamond sign when Jay-Z’s 40/40 club opened. If you don’t know, now you know.

Warren Buffett’s Thoughts About President Obama

Nov 29, 2012
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

Within the business community, Warren Buffett is the greatest ally of President Barack Obama. There is even a proposal to raise taxes brought about by President Obama named the Buffett Rule, which obviously bears the name of the billionaire entrepreneur and investor.

And more often than not, President Obama appeals to the authority and business savvy of Warren Buffett when he needs someone to defend his policies. But some of the statements that Buffett made this week potentially tell us that he’s not completely sold on the policies of our current president.

In this past Sunday’s edition of the New York Times, they published an op-ed piece where some of Warren Buffett’s opinions differed on topics that both he and President Obama are both concerned. For starters, Buffett opposes an increase in taxes on those people making less than $500,000 a year. As of right now, President Obama is currently negotiating a tax deal where Republicans will have to accept rate hikes in households making $250,000 a year or more.

And in a personal interview that Warren Buffett gave on TV with Charlie Rose of PBS, he sang the praises of Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank. Buffett thinks he would make an excellent Treasury Secretary. The interesting thing is that Mr. Dimon very clearly opposes the economic policies of the president and has openly criticized them. I’m particularly talking about financial regulations brought about from the 2010 Dodd-Frank law.

But during his interview, Warren Buffett said that Jamie Dimon is “terrific” and also mentioned to Charlie Rose that “if we did run into problems in markets, I think he actually be the best person you could have in the job.”

Even though Warren Buffett is considered President Obama’s biggest cheerleader throughout the business community, it is apparent that they do not agree on everything. This is particularly true of tax and regulatory policies that are a big part of the president’s agenda.

Is Warren Buffett a hypocrite because of this? I don’t believe so, not anymore then his advocacy of the Buffett Rule, since he exposes very little of his own fortune to taxation.

Jamie Dimon Is Buffett’s Pick For Treasury Secretary

Nov 27, 2012
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

President Barack Obama is currently looking to replace Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary. Everybody’s favorite billionaire investor Warren Buffett thinks that the best person to lead the Treasury Department during the financial crisis is none other than the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, Mr. Jamie Dimon.

It is believed that Dimon is not one of the potential candidates in the running for this fantastic position in the cabinet, but it’s also not the first time that this banker on Wall Street has been recommended for the job.

“If we run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job,” said Buffett during an interview that he had with Charlie Rose that aired on PBS this past Monday night. “World leaders would have confidence in him.”

It is currently believed that Jack Lew is the leading candidate to replace Tim Geithner. He is the former director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the current White House Chief of Staff.

There are a few others that are possibly under consideration as well. Some of the names floating around are Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock; Roger Altman, chairman of Evercore; and Gary Gensler, current chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and former partner at Goldman Sachs.

Dimon has the reputation of being a safe and savvy banker, although that reputation took a little bit of a hit this year during the entire London Whale trading debacle. So far, this error cost J.P. Morgan $6.2 billion.

“Obviously, you know, there was a failure of control,” said Buffett to PBS when discussing the trading losses. “If you run an army, if you run a church, if you run a government, any large institution, people will go off the reservation sometimes.”

There was a time when Dimon was looked upon as a friendly Wall Street executive to the administration. But he has recently criticized the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul championed by President Obama, and he’s also criticized some of the policies implemented by the Federal Reserve.

As of this time, Geithner is leading the negotiations in regards to the fiscal cliff. He is expected to leave his post once a potential deal is reached.

Buffett Says The Economy Will Generally Slow Down This Summer

Jul 13, 2012
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // investing // stocks // warren buffett with No Comments

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett made some economic claims from his office in Omaha Nebraska this Thursday. He claims that the economic growth in the United States has slowed down over the last two months because of the fear that’s taking place because of the debt woes over in Europe. If you haven’t been paying attention, the European debt has been mounting for quite some time now.

Buffett made these comments on Thursday during an interview that he did with financial network CNBC on cable television. Unfortunately, the comments he made on Thursday are in contrast with the message that he has been presenting to the public over the last few years.

Previously, Buffett said that the economy began to improve gradually since the fall of the year 2009. The one area that he mentioned that wasn’t improving is all business that is related to housing. Which obviously makes sense since we are in the middle of a housing crisis.

Warren Buffett isn’t claiming that the US economy has turned in a negative direction at all. But he did want to point out that our overseas business in Europe has quickly dropped off over the last two months.

The CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway used the information that he gets from the economic reports that are sent to his Omaha-based company’s subsidiaries, as well as the information he receives through investments. He has his hand in a lot of areas, and the investments range from soft drinks, to carpet, to insurance, to power companies and even railroads. So he’s getting a lot of information from many different areas.

Warren Buffett said “the general economy has been pretty much flat,” during his Allen and Co. interview when he attended the annual conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, among many media moguls and Wall Street investors.

One major bright spot that he pointed out at this meeting is that residential housing business has slightly improved very recently.

“The little pickup in housing has not been enough to offset what has been going on in the rest of the world,” said Buffett.

He’s not completely sure why the economy has been slowing overall.

During his CNBC interview, Buffett was also asked about JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. This comes one day before Chase is set to report their earnings, and also fill shareholders and the media in on this bad trade that has cost them somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 billion or more.

“I think Jamie Dimon is one of the best bankers in the world. He understands banking and risk,” Buffett said. Buffett has also personally invested in JPMorgan Chase as part of his own portfolio. He also wants to point out that investors should read Dimon’s letters to his shareholders.

Buffett was also requested to comment on Barclay’s, which is a British bank that was recently fined $453 million by the British and US authorities. They received this fine because they supplied false data that went into calculations used by the London interbank offered rate, which is a key global interest rate known as LIBOR.

Buffett claims that he understands exactly why Bob Diamond then resigned as CEO of Barclay’s.

“I don’t think he had any choice but to go,” stated Buffett.

Diamond has officially agreed to the final terms of a settlement, and he will have to forfeit up to $31 million in incentives and bonuses. This happened this past Tuesday.

Warren Buffett Expresses His Ever Present Confidence In Jamie Dimon, CEO Of JPMorgan Chase

Jul 12, 2012
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // investing // warren buffett with No Comments

Warren Buffett, billionaire investor, reiterated that he is still very confident in the abilities of Jamie Dimon, who is the current CEO of JPMorgan Chase bank. Buffett makes this claim just one day prior to Chase releasing their earnings results. It’s believed that Buffett made this statement to explain the loss that Chase has taken on a specific trade that many people feel was obviously a bad move.

Initially, JPMorgan Chase told the public that the estimated trade loss was going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 billion. This was first disclosed in the month of May. Now Dimon claims that the loss may actually grow further. No specific estimation was given when he made this statement.

It’s important to note that Dimon did apologize to his shareholders for the error, and he did so just days after he initially disclosed the loss. Ina Drew, the former Chief Investment Officer, was also responsible for overseeing the group that made this trade. She has since left the company.

Recently, Warren Buffett, who is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said that he still holds full faith in Dimon in an interview that he gave on CNBC. He also stated that he believes that Dimon is “one of the best bankers in the world.”

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