Buffett Befriends Bankers At Berkshire Soiree

In a published article from the Omaha World Herald, it appears that the major focus of the Berkshire Hathaway stockholders soiree concluded yesterday was a 30 minute keynote speech made by Warren Buffet speaking in defense of Wall Street bankers, Goldman Sachs.

Although Berkshire reportedly has several billion dollars invested in Goldman, Mr. Buffett was there to reassure his flock that he isn't "wasting away in Margaritaville" as that other Buffett over the Congressional hearings conducted this week in which several election vulnerable senators publicly chastized the Wall Street giant for its investment practices.

At issue, of course, was the nondisclosure of the parties to some of the contracts with investors which were based on "junk," to put it mildly, insofar as the degree of risk - and in which the issuing major client had also "hedged" their bets by investing in derivatives banking on the failure of the original investments.

Which, apparently, Mr. Buffett sees no ethical or conflict of interest complications in Goldman then "contracting" with other noninterested investor-clients without disclosure of the true degree of risk, and which essentially has so fundamentally affected this country's citizens trust in the banks, Wall Street, and even home "ownership," since it has been the American public holding the bag for Goldman's free and easy investment style and losses, using American's homes as the collateral.

I'm no gambler, but it does seem that in betting that these investments would "crap out," Goldman had knowledge that the issuing investor for those investments was using loaded dice.

Since apparently most of those which were directly affected and scammed were European banks which "should have known better," according to Mr. Buffett, Berkshire doesn't plan to make any changes in its close partnership with Goldman.

Which may be true for those investors, but there were others indirectly affected, many of them now homeless.

One top executive even seemed to take to task the outraged American public, indicating that there was a misconception that Goldman's actions cheated ordinary Americans, but in his opinion, they hadn't cheated anyone.

Left unsaid, however, were the number of American homeowners who were indirectly affected, and which is continuing especially in the West and Southwest, while most of those U.S. banks which were selling those "bad loans" seem to be more concerned also with their bottom lines and under pressure from Washington to satisfy those foreign investors by either renegotiating short term adjusted terms, or foreclosing - whichever is more beneficial to everyone but those homeowners.

In fact, Obama's focus has been since this mess began in pushing Americans to refinance their homes, into some of these creative loans which have not changed, it appears, since the same individuals which sold those loans have been given Washington's blessing to sort out the mess and "counsel" some of those scammed homeowners.

And left out in all of this is the fact that a great many of those loans were also underwritten by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - many of which also were not even based on the U.S. currency, but British LIBOR rate - a currency almost one and a half that of the U.S. when most of those loans were pushed.

I mean, how CAN U.S. banks be pushing and selling loans that are not even based on the U.S. currency, I ask?

So connecting the dots in the true fallout seems not to factor into Berkshire itself's bottom lines, so thus inconsequential.

Mr. Buffett is known in this country by the investment community as the "Oracle of Omaha," however, it seems to me this partnership with Goldman Sachs really is a no brainer insofar as profit for Berkshire, and profit for Goldman Sachs.

It's a win-win partnership no matter which way the dice roll, since Goldman has now been designated as one of those investment houses that was determined by Washington to be "too big to fail."

Although, according to reports also, Goldman actually is a major shareholder in our own Federal Reserve - in other words, how could Goldman fail when it is a major shareholder in the entity that prints and regulates the U.S. currency and interest rates for loans extended by their branch banks?

And Berkshire is, after all, heavily invested also in the insurance industry, and not purely Goldman Sachs preferred partner.

Although, if one of your investments is with a company that issues the money for an entire nation, with the U.S. government itself merely minor shareholders without any true "voting" authority over day to day operations, just how can you lose?

It appears that the scene in Omaha was a rather festive one, given the crumbling housing market, and over 10% unemployment in most areas of the country.

I wonder if Mr. Buffett has been to Phoenix, L.A. or Las Vegas lately?

I mean, outside the casinos.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100501/MONEY/305019931#buffett-reassures-the-faithful

Goldman Sachs Passion Play Misses The True Crime

While the entire even minimally politically aware citizenry of the United States is on overdrive due to the far-reaching events of this past week with respect to the war zone conditions that are more than apparent in the border states and particularly Arizona over the illegal immigration situation, with those on the East Coast per a Saturday Night Live News segment slamming the state, while being totally ignorant of what actually led to the actions taken by the state government to begin with, there has been more afoot on the Eastern Seaboard.

Such is the insulation in this country, and lack of a national identity at this point that those not directly affected by the porous southern borders and drug cartels doing business cross borders almost unimpeded for the past thirty years, have once again attempted to minimize the impact on those victims, rather than putting pressure on the federal government to actually do their jobs and get our southern borders secured FOR ALL.

This week, however, another drama is being played out in the media which also majorly impacted those living mostly in the West and Southwest and Sunbelt states (the states with the continuing foreclosures, which are increasing by the month) and that is the hearings being conducted over the Goldman Sachs securities fraud.

Little connection, however, or reporting has been forthcoming insofar as just who were the actual true victims in the Goldman Sachs fiasco.

And it was not primarily the investors of those CDOs which were pawned off on them by Goldman Sachs knowing full well that those collateralized loans were junk, and that one of their major clients was hedging their bets though derivatives in the process.

After all, Goldman Sachs is the Cadillac of investment houses and most of their clients are not neophytes but savy investors, or at least minimally aware of risk when making some of those investments.

I mean, these investors were playing the market, after all.

In fact, there are quite a number of Goldman Sachs investors who, I'm sure, invest for the tax writeoffs they receive for losses on some of those investments.

Although mere disclosures also of the risks for most of these investments is clearly inadequate for many, due to the legalese with which most prospectuses and other investment documents are written to begin with.

And selling your investors down the river for a favored investment client firm is not good business practice, nor is it legal in the sense the founders intended irrespective as to whether or not there are codified laws allowing mere disclosure as a protection for these huge Wall Street banking firms in order to mitigated their potential losses since Wall Street is pretty much left alone by the SEC and Congress more and more while the investment grades and risks are becoming greater and greater, for the average American individual investor, that is.

In fact, I would simply state that Goldman Sachs had a huge ethical problem, and conflict of interest actually, in order to win favor with one client at the cost of so many others and can not understand for the life of me just how that would not have been in violation of at least several SEC or United States Code provisions.

But the true victims actually are the American homeowners mostly in the West and Southwest who were sold most of those bad loans which Goldman Sachs has admitted full well knew were bad while they were unloading them.

People who were first time homebuyers, or who were forced into refinances in those states due to the rising costs of ownership during that very short boom cycle, many of whom also were owners of homes during a similar scenario involving Charles Keating in the 1980's - who was selling risky investments to elderly retirees in also the West and Southwest and who ended up losing their homes and everything they had when Lincoln Savings & Loan went bust.

Many of these risky and bad CDO's were also guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

We all know what happened then since it is and has been the American people who are also bailing out those two entities, all for Goldman Sachs' investors, since the homeowners whose loans were involved and their interests are far down the list and in which at this point for many actually have no underlying debt, as it were, since they were resold.

AND the American people were billed for cash advanced literally in the millions directly to Goldman Sachs (a part owner of our own Federal Reserve actually, according to several reports), so actually it appears Goldman Sachs was using Congress to write themselves their own checks, while billing then those costs to the American public at large on their investors behalf.

And yet it is and was the American homeowners who are still being threatened by these banks and lenders in bed with thsoe Wall Street wheeler dealers and Washington, and few have been able to refinance under more favorable terms since Congress has yet to address the actual terms of those bogus contracts to begin with.

In fact, most of Congress and Obama's attentions have been in attempting to hawk refinances instead to get more and more Americans, it appears, into some of those bogus loans in order to use to pay back some of these investors, apparently.

Or for those "new" jobs created in the mortgage industry of now "mortgage counselors" to settle those debts with those investors by renegotiating the terms of those loans as the middle man with those homeowners, weighing the cost/benefit against foreclosing on the property and reselling it as to which would get those investors and those banks affiliated with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae more.

Many of those loans, of course, were sold through California lenders which were not even based on the U.S. currency, but on the British LIBOR rates.

In the banking industry, the connections between New York and Wall Street and California and those mortgage bankers is strong.

After this week's bust and play acting by the Senate with respect to any true financial sector/Wall Street reform, I'm wondering when those in Washington will get around to addressing the fallout to the true victims of this passion play.

The American people, and mostly those American homeowners in the West and Southwest which New York and its brash comedians maligned in a roundabout way once again last Saturday night.

Watch Washington give Goldman Sachs a lengthy tongue lashing, as what occurred today by selected Senators needing some face time with the media for the upcoming elections, and then purportedly levy a heavy fine.

While the true victims continue to lose their homes, jobs and even lives in the West and Southwest due to Washington's continued political maneuvering protecting the bankers and appeasing the foreigners while raping the citizenry.