Yup, most of his fortune was made up of insurance companies, which the rich use to pay off the death tax. That's the reason he's such a big proponent of the death tax or 0bamacare, he makes out on it. Buffet never supports anything that will hurt his bottom line, but try to get progressives who see him as some benevolent billionaire to believe that.
The thing is, people like him, Gates , the Kennedy's can afford to set up complex shelters to avoid a good part of this government ripoff. In other words they aren't really affected. It's the farmer or small business who's net worth is tied up in land buildings or equipment, without a lot of cash reserves who gets whacked by this. That's why the family farm is largely a thing of the past. Of course , this is all by design.
Want some more buffett at the buffet? Buffett owns Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, and “hosts” major amtrak routes-—that is to say amtrak has to rent the rail lines from them, at significant cost because freight has priority over passenger.
Amtrak being all stock held by US gov. this means US gov pays BNSF for the rail lines— so buffett is like a defense contractor.
Cannot stand this bs artist. Ivan Boesky was at least a fully admitted pirate. Nothing buffett does is really brilliant-he sits on the boards of the companies he trades... sweet cook up of the books.