"Warren Buffett upbeat on housing market" by Josh Funk | Associated Press, February 26, 2012
OMAHA - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said yesterday that he was “dead wrong’’ with a prediction that the US housing market would begin to recover by now, but he remains optimistic about the nation’s economy.
I suppose I would feel that way if I "earned" $10 BILLION bucks last year.
In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett said he is sure housing will recover eventually and help bring down the nation’s unemployment rate. But he did not predict when that will happen.
Investors eagerly await the letter from Buffett, 81, the so-called Oracle of Omaha, who built an approximately $44 billion fortune by following a steadfast, no-nonsense investing strategy.
Buffett said, in typical plainspoken style, that the housing market will come back because some human factors can’t be denied forever.
“People may postpone hitching up during uncertain times, but eventually hormones take over,’’ he wrote. “And while ‘doubling-up’ may be the initial reaction of some during a recession, living with in-laws can quickly lose its allure.’’
This guy just showed he is an out-of-touch elite, which is probably why the paper plays up the everyman, rags-to-riches image.
The housing prediction proved painful for Berkshire Hathaway. It owns more than 80 subsidiaries, including the Geico insurance company and See’s Candy, and five of them rely heavily on construction activity.
Oh, the poor dears.
Those businesses, which include Acme Brick, Clayton Homes, and Shaw carpet, generated pre-tax profits of $513 million last year. That’s well off the $1.8 billion those companies added to Berkshire in 2006.
Berkshire’s insurance companies took $1.7 billion in catastrophe losses last year, including from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Berkshire reported only $154 million in underwriting profit, down from $1.3 billion the previous year.
They still made money and yet they make it seem like a loss.
But several of Berkshire’s larger noninsurance businesses - Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, MidAmerican Energy, Marmon Group, Lubrizol, and Iscar - all generated record earnings in 2011.
Yeah, but.... (long drawn-out sigh)
That helped Berkshire as a whole to generate $10.3 billion in net income last year, down from nearly $13 billion in 2010....
How did you do this year, reader?
--more--"
Related: Buffet's Buffet
And the seeing oracle will save the newspapers!
"Warren Buffett offers advice for newspapers" Associated Press, February 28, 2012
OMAHA - Warren Buffett says newspapers need to stop giving away their product free online, but will have a decent future if they continue delivering information that can’t be found elsewhere.
Pfffffffffffft!!
First of all, THEY ARE CHANGING for their RIVERS of S*** PROPAGANDA these days, and the simple fact is now you don't need a newspaper to find information. Citizens are doing it themselves because of the rotten old Internet. That's where this blog is failing. I'm sticking with this s***.
Look, the newspapers still have a place because "without a paper – a journal of some kind – you cannot unite a community." And that is what has been so disappointing with the lying, distorting, obfucating, agenda-pushing, war-promoting AmeriKan media. The fact is I should no longer be looking to the newspaper for anything. The answer when you ask someone how to find out what is happening in our world is read a newspaper. What they don't tell you is you have to sift through so much s***.
Buffett talked about the news business on CNBC yesterday because his Berkshire Hathaway owns two newspapers and has a sizable investment in the Washington Post Co.
So he doesn't always invest in winners, 'eh?
He was being interviewed in front of the Omaha World-Herald’s printing presses. Berkshire Hathaway bought the World-Herald last year.
--more--"
Also see:
Globe Decline a Decade in the Making
The Boston Globe Admits Iraq Lies Killed It
And yet they have not stopped lying. Some people never learn.
“People may postpone hitching up during uncertain times, but eventually hormones take over,’’ he wrote. “And while ‘doubling-up’ may be the initial reaction of some during a recession, living with in-laws can quickly lose its allure.’’
This guy just showed he is an out-of-touch elite, which is probably why the paper plays up the everyman, rags-to-riches image.
The housing prediction proved painful for Berkshire Hathaway. It owns more than 80 subsidiaries, including the Geico insurance company and See’s Candy, and five of them rely heavily on construction activity.
Oh, the poor dears.
Those businesses, which include Acme Brick, Clayton Homes, and Shaw carpet, generated pre-tax profits of $513 million last year. That’s well off the $1.8 billion those companies added to Berkshire in 2006.
Berkshire’s insurance companies took $1.7 billion in catastrophe losses last year, including from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Berkshire reported only $154 million in underwriting profit, down from $1.3 billion the previous year.
They still made money and yet they make it seem like a loss.
But several of Berkshire’s larger noninsurance businesses - Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, MidAmerican Energy, Marmon Group, Lubrizol, and Iscar - all generated record earnings in 2011.
Yeah, but.... (long drawn-out sigh)
That helped Berkshire as a whole to generate $10.3 billion in net income last year, down from nearly $13 billion in 2010....
How did you do this year, reader?
--more--"
Related: Buffet's Buffet
And the seeing oracle will save the newspapers!
"Warren Buffett offers advice for newspapers" Associated Press, February 28, 2012
OMAHA - Warren Buffett says newspapers need to stop giving away their product free online, but will have a decent future if they continue delivering information that can’t be found elsewhere.
Pfffffffffffft!!
First of all, THEY ARE CHANGING for their RIVERS of S*** PROPAGANDA these days, and the simple fact is now you don't need a newspaper to find information. Citizens are doing it themselves because of the rotten old Internet. That's where this blog is failing. I'm sticking with this s***.
Look, the newspapers still have a place because "without a paper – a journal of some kind – you cannot unite a community." And that is what has been so disappointing with the lying, distorting, obfucating, agenda-pushing, war-promoting AmeriKan media. The fact is I should no longer be looking to the newspaper for anything. The answer when you ask someone how to find out what is happening in our world is read a newspaper. What they don't tell you is you have to sift through so much s***.
Buffett talked about the news business on CNBC yesterday because his Berkshire Hathaway owns two newspapers and has a sizable investment in the Washington Post Co.
So he doesn't always invest in winners, 'eh?
And the press coverage now makes sense, 'eh?
Newspapers face challenges because of competition from Internet news sources and the rising cost of newsprint.
The LYING HASN'T HELPED, either!!!
Buffett said newspapers need to make sure they remain the primary source of information about subjects readers are interested in.
That is where they are SO FAILING!! And even if the Internet is shut down it won't matter because NO ONE BELIEVES the AmeriKan media anymore!! The SIMPLE FACT is the TRUST HAS BEEN BROKEN and it can NEVER BE REGAINED!
--more--"
Also see:
Globe Decline a Decade in the Making
The Boston Globe Admits Iraq Lies Killed It
And yet they have not stopped lying. Some people never learn.
