{"id":3588,"date":"2009-11-07T14:03:17","date_gmt":"2009-11-07T14:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=3588"},"modified":"2009-11-07T14:03:17","modified_gmt":"2009-11-07T14:03:17","slug":"buffetts_betray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3588","title":{"rendered":"Buffett’s Betrayal…."},"content":{"rendered":"

Rolfe Winkler<\/a>: <\/p>\n

When I was 14, Warren Buffett wrote me a letter.
\n


\nIt was a response to one I\u2019d sent him, pitching an investment idea. For a kid interested in learning stocks, Buffett was a great role model. His investing style \u2014 diligent security analysis, finding competent management, patience \u2014 was immediately appealing.
\n


\nBuffett was kind enough to respond to my letter, thanking me for it and inviting me to his company\u2019s annual meeting. I was hooked. Today, Buffett remains famous for investing The Right Way. He even has a television cartoon in the works, which will groom the next generation of acolytes.
\n


\nBut it turns out much of the story is fiction. A good chunk of his fortune is dependent on taxpayer largess. Were it not for government bailouts, for which Buffett lobbied hard, many of his company\u2019s stock holdings would have been wiped out.
\n


\nBerkshire Hathaway, in which Buffett owns 27 percent, according to a recent proxy filing, has more than $26 billion invested in eight financial companies that have received bailout money. The TARP at one point had nearly $100 billion invested in these companies and, according to new data released by Thomson Reuters, FDIC backs more than $130 billion of their debt.
\n


\nTo put that in perspective, 75 percent of the debt these companies have issued since late November has come with a federal guarantee. (Click chart to enlarge in new window)

<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rolfe Winkler<\/a>: <\/p>\n

When I was 14, Warren Buffett wrote me a letter.
\n


\nIt was a response to one I\u2019d sent him, pitching an investment idea. For a kid interested in learning stocks, Buffett was a great role model. His investing style \u2014 diligent security analysis, finding competent management, patience \u2014 was immediately appealing.
\n


\nBuffett was kind enough to respond to my letter, thanking me for it and inviting me to his company\u2019s annual meeting. I was hooked. Today, Buffett remains famous for investing The Right Way. He even has a television cartoon in the works, which will groom the next generation of acolytes.
\n


\nBut it turns out much of the story is fiction. A good chunk of his fortune is dependent on taxpayer largess. Were it not for government bailouts, for which Buffett lobbied hard, many of his company\u2019s stock holdings would have been wiped out.
\n


\nBerkshire Hathaway, in which Buffett owns 27 percent, according to a recent proxy filing, has more than $26 billion invested in eight financial companies that have received bailout money. The TARP at one point had nearly $100 billion invested in these companies and, according to new data released by Thomson Reuters, FDIC backs more than $130 billion of their debt.
\n


\nTo put that in perspective, 75 percent of the debt these companies have issued since late November has come with a federal guarantee. (Click chart to enlarge in new window)

<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,35,9,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}