Obama to award Warren Buffet Medal of Freedom

Don’t forget: This is the self-same asshole who professes: “I don’t make investments in things I don’t understand.”

So, when he bought Moody’s, he ostensibly used the same formula for pulling the trigger as he did for Benjamin Moore and Dairy Queen - that Moody’s had an edge that couldn’t easily be duplicated that made that company a must have asset.

He bought Moody’s early in the 00’s. Why exactly? All Moody’s consists of is a bunch of mathematical rating formulas for securities. The people working there, the analysts, should be miles better than the analysts working at Goldman Sachs, right?

After all, the rate on a security isn’t fixed on what Goldman thinks it ought to be, but on what Moody’s says it should be. The Moody’s analyst is making low six digits. What’s the Goldman analyst making?

This bit of observation I lifted out of Michael Lewis’ book called The Big Short. It’s the first book I’ve read in 20 years that I’d call must reading for everyone. It explains why we are where we are.

I’ve got a chapter left to go, and I this AM made the observation that the carnage that he documents, and the analysis of the causes of it, were made about a year or so ago. Based on his analysis, he’s going to need to write a sequel, because the real pain hasn’t begun yet.

In commercial real estate, for example, we’re still playing extend and pretend. People really haven’t lost their homes in the numbers that they should be yet. Somebody is paying off the insurance on the CDO’s and paying off the CDS’s on the asset backed securities.

Ironically, Greenspan’s name never comes up in the book, but Bernanke’s does, which is odd. The SEC? We should fold it tomorrow - it isn’t doing anything.

Under Sarbanne’s, why isn’t John Mack in Jail? Why isn’t Blankfein? How about Bear and Merrill? Why isn’t there 1000’s of those guys in jail right now?

"Crook. He owned 20 percent of Moody’s when it was laundering BBB rated mortgage bonds into AAA rated asset backed securities."

It's funny when a person without any discernible concern for morality calls someone else a crook. Please put up or shut up: sue Moody's for the supposed "laundering" or stop promulgating falsehoods.

"They were using average FICO scores to rate the mortgages. Problem was they were using thin-file scores to fix the scores. Thus a $14,000 a year strawberry picker could have a FICO score of 650. Since he had no debt, and never been delinquent, there was no file."

Now you tell us that you have no clue what the rating agencies do. They have never ever done due diligence, and have always explicitly said so. Unlike banks issuing loans, for instance, they rely on the information submitted to them.

Like many people, you confuse research such as due diligence, where new information is obtained (e.g., applicant A does indeed have an inventory he claims on paper; applicant B for a mortgage does indeed have a job which he claims he has, etc.); and analysis of the existing information (given the company claims about its financial position, what is the chance of its default on a bond?).

More specifically, Moody's, Fitch and S&P do not assign the scores you refer to but take them as given. The "problem" you refer to above may indeed invalidate Moody's conclusion, but Moody's never said otherwise. The product they sell, in simple words, is: "given the information we have, and without verification of that information, here is what we think about likelihood of default."

Your argument is therefore ad stramineus homo (against a straw man): you attribute to rating agencies something they never said and done and then blame them for that supposed act.

"Buffett made money off the fees Moody’s was taking for the laundering,"

Again, please put up -- sue Moody's for laundering -- or shut up.

"and then made money off of" --- this thing, "off of," must be in fashion now. Even CNBC talking heads think that cowboy-speak makes them look intellectual.

"He’s a kindly, lying, asshole. "

Yep, name-calling your arguments so much more palatable.

"Were he Japanese, he’d have had a sword in his belly for causing the downfall of the modern capitalist system."

Wow! One person is responsible for the entire downfall of the "modern capitalist system!" Unlike Moody's, what a great analyst you are, grandma.

"Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch was the cog in the system that failed the market."

A system that failed the market? What on earth is that? What system (other than a government protecting property rights, which is irrelevant for the topic at hand) is supposed to ensure "the market" and has supposedly failed to do so? It appears that you know something --- perhaps even some great deal --- about what happens in credit markets work but not why. Judging by your statements, you should quite hesitant before you accuse others of anything. And, throwing dirt at others -- Moody's, Goldman, etc. --- does not make you look either smart or clean: it makes you look ignorant and bitter.

"Goldman? They are the crooks - plain and simple. There shouldn’t be a Goldman Sachs today."

There you go. Yet another socialist on this board. With "conservatives" like that, is it any wonder that we have a commie in the White House?

I get a big chuckle over the praise he and Gates get as they travel around trying to get rich philanthropists to give to charitable organizations. Why in heaven's name don't they just give it back to the government to apply to the national debt which would save all of us peons from being taxed into oblivion.

Obviously, they would rather think of ways to continue feathering their nests as they give it to organizations that are probably dedicated to completely pauperizing the middle class as they reap all kinds of good pr.

BTW.I would also like to know what charities the two of them donate to in addition to AIDS relief and Planned Parenthood. I'm beginning to really believe we are a nation of dopes and dupes just like they think we are.

"I always hear the press say... Warren is a humble guy that still lives in the same home in Omaha. No doubt this dude has other homes around the world... probably not humble either."

Well, it's healthy to have doubt about things you don't know. But, since you ask, he does not have other homes.

"Does Buffet really spend 365 days a year (or anything close to 365) in that house in Omaha?"

No, but this has nothing to do with how many homes he has. He travels on business, in which cases he stays in hotels --- believe it or not, like you and I! Isn't it against what you know to be true about rich people?

"Call me pessimistic, fine... but I have this feeling this dude is another do as I say, not as I do type (just like the Pelosi's/Reid's/Obama's of the world)."

No, you are not pessimistic. You just allowed the commie propaganda to get under your skin: you believe that "rich" people are different, and you judge them on their possessions, not their actual behaviors.

As Malcom Forbes said, famously and correctly, "The only difference between poor rich people and poor people is that rich people have money." Just like "poor" people, the wealthy one can be moral (J.D. Rockefeller, Forbes) or immoral, kind or stingy, good of bad family men and women, etc. The idea that a person's viewpoint and behavior are determined by his economic condition is one of the main claims to fame by Karl Marx. I understand that this falsehood got under your skin through the efforts of numerous teachers in your life, but you should at least be aware that this is a lie and know who has invented it.

You nailed it.

I’m both ignorant and bitter.

For example, I’m bitter about the fact that on Wall Street, it’s the individual that’s responsible for success, but they need the taxpayer to socialize the risk.

Certainly, you can’t deny that John Q had to bail out AIG, BofA, Citi, Morgan, and others?

It’s also a fact that when the bonds went bust, they didn’t go bust slowly, by the asset rating floor, as the banks that sold them said they would - with the BBB mortgages going first, but with the others standing fast, limiting the default rate on the mortgages to no more than 5%.

That’s a fact.

It’s also a fact that in 2006, the income/mortgage ratio - the difference between what a mortgage holder makes and the size of the mortgage he holds - was 8.5 in Florida, and 10 in California.

It’s a fact that nobody, not even the banks that made them, could provide you with a list of the assets that made up a CDO in 2008. This would prevent any attempt at due diligence, would anyone care to perform it.

It’s also a fact that the person rating CDO’s and asset backed securities at Moody’s had to send a list of the securities that she wanted to downgrade to management. A list came back that contained the securities she was allowed to downgrade, even though the criteria for assigning those grades was standard. If 100 securities were on the list, and legitimately qualified for a downgrade, 25 would come back with no explanation.

This is the second book Lewis has published on the topic, but easily the best documented and most clearly stated explanation for what happpened.

I’m now bitter that we’ve yet to unwind all of this, and they are still using my money to do it with, but the bonus’ have resumed.

It’s a fact that Mack, for one, was ignorant of what the hell was going on while his sub-prime desk while they lost $9B on in a quarter. Under Sarbanne’s ignorance isn’t a defense for a CEO.

As for you telling me that I have no discernable concern for morality, how the hell would you know?

As for suing, the really bitter/funny part about this is that I don’t have standing. I own part of GM, AIG, Dodge, BofA, and perhaps a bunch of other companies I don’t know about. The USG owns the stock, but I’m not getting a statment from their IR desk. I’m not receiving dividend checks, and I don’t get proxies to vote.

So, until you do a bit of reading about the matter, I suggest you sod off commenting on things you don’t know anything about.

NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell, St. Louis (baseball) Hall of Famer Stan Musial, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Wall Street wizard Warren Buffett top the list of scholars, athletes, artists, achievers and do-gooders who will be presented the award at a White House ceremony early next year.

“These outstanding honorees come from a broad range of backgrounds and they’ve excelled in a broad range of fields, but all of them have lived extraordinary lives that have inspired us, enriched our culture, and made our country and our world a better place. I look forward to awarding them this honor,” Obama said.

The rest of the list includes civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), environmentalist John H. Adams, poet Maya Angelou, Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein, optometrist murdered by the Taliban Dr. Tom Little, civil rights activist Sylvia Mendez, disabled rights advocate Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith and former AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney.

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