Source: Death and Taxes
There has been concern in some corridors of Wall Street that Bank of America doesn’t have sufficient capital and its shares responded by plummeting. Bank of America swore that nothing was wrong but whispers of a bailout were beginning to swell. The bailout did not come (so far) from the government, but from Warren Buffett.
We’ve long been opposed to Bank of America here at Death and Taxes for the nature of their business practices: predatory overdraft fee policies, predatory and fraudulent mortgage activity, investing in the mercenary army Blackwater (now Xe),new account policies to replace lost overdraft fee revenue and employing intelligence firms to investigate WikiLeaks as though they were the CIA.
And as BofA’s stocks tumbled, we rejoiced and beseeched the U.S. government to let it fail.
Warren Buffett, however, doesn’t seem intent on letting such an outcome happen. The octogenarian multi-billionaire has stepped in with a $5 billion investment. As Reuters notes, Buffett also stepped in with General Motors and Goldman Sachs at the last minute following the financial carnage of 2008.
The result: BofA shares rose 15 percent to $8.03 in early trading.
Given all of BofA and Goldman Sachs’ questionable business practices (particularly in the realm of mortgages), we might say that Buffett had an ethical bypass at birth along with Gordon Gekko, and he attempts to atone for these sins by educating Americans about the unfair tax system.
Hidden behind that friendly, grandfatherly demeanor, however, is a ruthless disciple of money and order—a built-in public relations automaton whose true aim is to diffuse the class warfare bubbling below the crumbling veneer of the American Dream.
Indeed, Warren Buffett is the enabler of the status quo and should be recognized as such.
We’ve long been opposed to Bank of America here at Death and Taxes for the nature of their business practices: predatory overdraft fee policies, predatory and fraudulent mortgage activity, investing in the mercenary army Blackwater (now Xe),new account policies to replace lost overdraft fee revenue and employing intelligence firms to investigate WikiLeaks as though they were the CIA.
And as BofA’s stocks tumbled, we rejoiced and beseeched the U.S. government to let it fail.
Warren Buffett, however, doesn’t seem intent on letting such an outcome happen. The octogenarian multi-billionaire has stepped in with a $5 billion investment. As Reuters notes, Buffett also stepped in with General Motors and Goldman Sachs at the last minute following the financial carnage of 2008.
The result: BofA shares rose 15 percent to $8.03 in early trading.
Given all of BofA and Goldman Sachs’ questionable business practices (particularly in the realm of mortgages), we might say that Buffett had an ethical bypass at birth along with Gordon Gekko, and he attempts to atone for these sins by educating Americans about the unfair tax system.
Hidden behind that friendly, grandfatherly demeanor, however, is a ruthless disciple of money and order—a built-in public relations automaton whose true aim is to diffuse the class warfare bubbling below the crumbling veneer of the American Dream.
Indeed, Warren Buffett is the enabler of the status quo and should be recognized as such.
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