Obviously with Buffett a major shareholder of Moody’s, the only place where a downgrade of Berkshire could come from was S&P. Moments ago, the rating agency that dared to downgrade the US for which it is being targeted by Eric Holder’s Department of “Justice”, did just that. Continue reading »
CHARLESTON, SC – Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world, is spending time in the Lowcountry.WCBD confirmed the American business magnate is at the Sanctuary on Kiawah Island.
Suspicion was raised when nearly 20 very expensive jets were seen lined up at the Charleston International Airport on Johns Island.
Officials with the Beach Company confirmed to WCBD that other big names such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, TV host Oprah Winfrey and Billionaire Warren Buffet flew into the Charleston Executive airport on Johns Island Wednesday night.
Other prominent people said to also be staying there this weekend are Jeb Bush and Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
I wish I knew the answer to the above question. As of the last year or so, I admittedly have not had a good feel about the direction of gold and silver prices. I always thought that as things got more severe and more terminal, the prices of assets we see on our screens would be more and more quite intentionally disconnected from the reality on the ground due to increasingly aggressive, desperate and coordinated action by the power structure. Looking back, it seems this really got underway in the fall of 2011, shortly after the U.S. treasury market was downgraded and gold shot up to over $1,900/oz. I have gradually recognized my inability to call things in such manipulated financial markets, which is why I decided to step away and offer less commentary on these topics as things play out in the end game.
As such, I think the interview below from Marin Katusa of Casey research is a great listen for anyone wanting to take a step back and look at the market. Enjoy!
Consider the 500 tons of paper gold sold on Friday. Begin with the question, how many ounces is 500 tons? There are 2,000 pounds to one ton. 500 tons equal 1,000,000 pounds. There are 16 ounces to one pound, which comes to 16 million ounces of short sales on Friday.
Who has 16 million ounces of gold? At the beginning gold price that day of about $1,550, that comes to $24,800,000,000. Who has that kind of money?
What happens when 500 tons of gold sales are dumped on the market at one time or on one day? Correct, it drives the price down. Investors who want to get out of large positions would spread sales out over time so as not to lower their sales proceeds. The sale took gold down by about $73 per ounce. That means the seller or sellers lost up to $73 dollars 16 million times, or $1,168,000,000.
Who can afford to lose that kind of money? Only a central bank that can print it.
Just a purely accidental modest to quite modest increase in the Heinz June $65 call open interest yesterday, and an even more accidental $1.5 million profit in one day? Surely the new Morgan Stanely head of the SEC will get right on it, and market “credibility” will be preserved. At least Buffett’s DOJ-immune rating agency Moody’s will rate the JPM’s committed financing for the HNZ takeover AAAA++++.
Just released by Heinz. Luckily, the brand new US Secretary of State has a full conflict of interest release.
H.J. Heinz Company Enters Into Agreement to Be Acquired by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital
H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ) (“Heinz”) today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by an investment consortium comprised of Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital.
Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by Heinz’s Board of Directors, Heinz shareholders will receive $72.50 in cash for each share of common stock they own, in a transaction valued at $28 billion, including the assumption of Heinz’s outstanding debt. The per share price represents a 20% premium to Heinz’s closing share price of $60.48 on February 13, 2013, a 19% premium to Heinz’s all-time high share price, a 23% premium to the 90-day average Heinz share price and a 30% premium to the one-year average share price.
Define irony: when the most vocal supporter of a dramatic change to the existing tax policy takes advantage of the last few days of the old one…
BERKSHIRE HAS PURCHASED 9,200 OF CLASS A SHRS AT $131,000-SHR
BERKSHIRE RAISED PRICE LIMIT FOR BUYBACKS TO 120% BOOK VALUE
BERKSHIRE MAY BUY ADDED SHRS AT NO MORE THAN 120% BOOK VALUE
BERKSHIRE BOOSTS BUYBACK PRICE LIMIT TO 120% BOOK VALUE VS 110%
A total $1.2 billion spent to avoid a few hundred million in new taxes. And now back to the hypocrticy of the “Buffett tax”, and “Patriotic Millionaires for America.” In other news, total donations to pay down the debt in Fiscal 2013 (starting October 1): $290,195.03.
Great and wondrous things seem to be afoot among the righteous bankers of the world. A few months ago Matt Zames was named to get JPMorgan’s CIO office out of trouble – and also happens to be the Chairman of the all-powerful Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee. Just yesterday, Mark Carney completed Europe’s full-house of ex-Goldman Sachs alum running the region’s monetary policy. Today we hear Lloyd Blankfein will be sidling up to Obama tomorrow. And now this; from the never-crony-capitalist himself, billionaire Warren Buffett has publicly blessed Jamie “apart from the failure of control” Dimon as the best man for the top job at the Treasury. “If we did run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job,” Buffett added (sounding more like the ‘we’ meant he) and dismissed the London-Whale “failure of control” with sometimes “people go off the reservation.” With Zames running the Shadow Treasury and Dimon running the Real Treasury, is it any wonder that inquiring minds are asking who really runs America (and for whom)? Of course, in the pre-Fed era – over 100 years ago, JPMorgan Sr. ‘bailed-out’ America before…
“2. Rothschild Family (banking dynasty, 1740- ) $350 billion”
… which is ‘peanuts’ for the Rothchild’s or maybe their petty cash.
I have a question: Why is it, with all those banks losing TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS, that MSM and our beloved governments always fail to mention who is on the other side of the trade?
A new study has produced an inflation-adjusted list of the richest people of all time
When we think of the world’s all-time richest people, names like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and John D Rockefeller immediately come to mind.
But few would have thought, or even heard of, Mansa Musa I of Mali – the obscure 14th century African king who was today named the richest person in all history.
In an attempt to break the now ubiquitous narrative that “its all about income tax rates”, and to challenge the ridiculous new support for QEternity; ‘The Bears’ that brought you ‘The Bernank’ are back. In this cartoon, they explain how the bailouts made people like Warren Buffett far wealthier than they should be and exposes who actually benefits from all this QE. The Bears, The Buff-ate, and The Bernank – simply perfect.
Just under two years ago, Meredith Whitney made a much maligned, if very vocal call, that hundreds of US municipalities will file for bankruptcy. She also put a timestamp on the call, which in retrospect was her downfall, because while she will ultimately proven 100% correct about the actual event, the fact that she was off temporally (making it seem like a trading call instead of a fundamental observation) merely had a dilutive impact of the statement. As a result she was initially taken seriously, causing a big hit to the muni market, only to be largely ignored subsequently even following several prominent California bankruptcies. This is all about to change as none other than Warren Buffett has slashed half of his entire municipal exposure, in what the WSJ has dubbed a “red flag” for the municipal-bond market. Perhaps another way of calling it is the second coming of Meredith Whitney’s muni call, this time however from an institutionalized permabull. Continue reading »
Warren Buffett, the billionaire who pledged to donate most of his wealth to charity, contributed stock valued at $1.52 billion in his annual gift to the foundation created by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates.
Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), donated about 18.4 million of his company’s Class B shares to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to a filing issued yesterday. The shares closed at $82.54 in New York.
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