Buffett Recruited as Schwarzenegger's Economic Adviser

Bloomberg no url | 8/13/3

[NativeNewYorker]

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) --Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor who is running for governor of California, said billionaire investor Warren Buffett will be the financial and economic adviser to his political campaign, the campaign said in a statement.

Buffett, the world's second-richest man, has built a fortune buy buying companies through his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Debbie Bosanek, Buffett's assistant, didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

[MinuteGal]

Maybe Arnie should have gotten together with his political advisors before he named his financial advisor.

Timing is everything, Arnold.

Leni

[Beck_isright]

Soros is too busy raising $75 Million to oust W.

[EternalVigilance]

Buffett loathes Republicans.

Much as Schwarzenegger loathes conservatives.

[wardaddy]

Regardless, Hildy. Buffett has reams and reams of liberal social and fiscal baggage.

[Protagoras]

Warren Buffet or Steve Forbes?

Forbes hands down, if those are the only two choices. Forbes understands economics, Buffet understands valuation.

Warren Buffet whos actually created wealth, or Steve Forbes who inherited it?

Where they got it is irrelevant. But i'll bet Forbes created more than Buffet. Buffet takes temporarily undervalued property and fixes it up or waits it out and then profits. Forbes has built sucessfully on his father's business.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Just like he "cosmetically" padded his resume by supporting governmental after school day care? I kinda like Arnold too but....his record positively shouts more taxes and more spending. There is little reason to hope otherwise or take a gamble on him.

[Protagoras]

Quote of the day by Protagoras.

Thanks, true genius should always be applauded. :^}

[Nonstatist]

Arnold will do something Davis has recently been unable to do: raise taxes.

Yes, thats how I see it too. Cripes, can things get any worse?

[Beck_isright]

"Buffet takes temporarily undervalued property and fixes it up or waits it out and then profits."

Buffet wants to buy California?

[Protagoras]

Buffet wants to buy California?

You must admit it needs fixin' up!

[Dane]

Where they got it is irrelevant. But i'll bet Forbes created more than Buffet. Buffet takes temporarily undervalued property and fixes it up or waits it out and then profits. Forbes has built sucessfully on his father's business.

JMO, protagoras, your above passage is very anti-Randian of you. If Ayn Rand was alive today, she would be on Buffett's side because of his business acumen.

Remember that Ayn Rand was all business and could care less about social issues. She was an atheist.

You all should be overjoyed about Buffet being on Arnold's team, IMO.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Social issues? You mean like Buffett's support for massive tax and spending increases? Are you saying that Rand would like that too?

[wardaddy]

He actually incorporates more of what he buys than sells.

He is very exposed in re-insurance and has moved heaven and earth for federal assistance in various ways.

The only true fiscal conservatism I've witnessed from him is his reknown stinginess with his family....and his own rather non ostentatious lifestyle.

He is though quite a manager with an eye for undervalued bricks and mortar companies with legs and name recognition. And byzantine financing acumen. Those are his strengths.

He operates at a level of financial power probably only Bill Gates can understand. Behemoths amongst titans.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

Thanks, true genius should always be applauded. :^}

LOL, although today isn't a day for laughing. Just when I was resigning to Arnuld fandom, this confirms EVERYTHING I was most afraid of about this issue-less actor. "Economic Advisor" Why not Ralph Nader, or Nome Chomsky? At least those kooks wouldn't be able to hurt us becuase of their fiscal ignorance.

At this point, Gary Coleman or Angelyn would make a better Governor than this stealth "Republican" at least they are too ignorant to know how to reengineer the system.

[Ditto]

Can y'all hear yourselves?

Very well, and I'll say it again. Buffett is not an economist, doesn’t pretend to be and has publicly admitted that he knows nothing about it and doesn’t care to. That's why he takes those silly socialist stances on things like tax rates etc. He doesn't comprehend how high taxes on "the rich" in reality hurt the middle-class and the poor much more than the rich. He doesn't feel the pain so he assumes there is none. When he has used the super-rich tax loopholes to setup irrevocable trusts and foundations to take care of his children and grandchildren for several generations, he doesn’t understand how the estate tax rapes the families of small entrepreneurs who don’t have the liquid assets necessary to protect an estate from the tax man.

His path to wealth was taking over undervalued low-tech companies and strengthening their financial and management picture. He is a smart financial guy who knows how to raise billions from the capital markets but he is a zero in terms of economics.

And I say again, a state governor does little or nothing in terms of macro-economics. There is nothing they can do to impact monetary policy, the value of the dollar, balance of trade, bond or equity markets (short of total default), and even that $60 B that the State of California is in the hole doesn’t amount to a pimple on the butt of the market.

Financial advise, i.e. how to cut the cost of state government is what CA needs now. Some of Buffet's bean counters could probably give some good ideas to streamline the state bureaucracy as long as the Governor has the guts to fight the unions and the horde of various political parasites that are sucking the lifeblood out of California.

[onedoug]

Yes, I'd like a debate among all those "claiming" to be Republican.

[Pubbie]

"Why not Ralph Nader,"

At least Nader is upfront and honest about his liberalism, unlike the Whoreacle! :(

[Dane]

Social issues? You mean like Buffett's support for massive tax and spending increases? Are you saying that Rand would like that too

Hey Ayn Rand was all about power, her own power.

JMO, Ayn Rand would find solace with Warren Buffett's life story.

[CyberCowboy777]

If true this is a shoot over the bow.

"We will Raise taxes on middle - Upper/Middle income Families. We will raise long term business taxes."

Buffet has his money, but believes in the socialist ideology. The U.S.S.R. had plenty of "Rich" guys that endorsed the "system", they were protected.

[CyberCowboy777]

The Majority of Republicans should vote for a real Republican.

Buffet has one economic standard for guys like him and another for the great unwashed. Just like the fat cats in the U.S.S.R.

Socialism for us, wealth for them.

WWRD (What Would Reagan Do)