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One of the most popular movie series of all-time has been Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean starring Johnny Depp. Fraught with action, adventure, and danger, these same words can also be used to describe the U.S. Treasury market. In fact, the similarities are almost chilling. If you’re sailing on the high seas and a storm was imminent, more than likely you would head for the nearest port. Trying to ride out the storm would probably bring death and destruction, and anything would be better than that. However, if the port within reach was occupied by Johnny Depp and his collection...

The surprise announcement yesterday that NetJets Chairman David Sokol had resigned from Berkshire Hathaway under a cloud of insider trading suspicion produced smiles of satisfaction among many general aviation leaders. When the word of Sokol’s sudden exit spread during a dinner at the Sun ‘n Fun airshow in Lakeland, Fla., last night, one general aviation manufacturing CEO said, “There’s celebrating going on in Wichita and Savannah today.” Sokol cancelled orders for hundreds of business jets built by Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft, both based in Wichita, Kan., and Gulfstream, which is headquartered in Savannah, Ga. He said he did so to...

In a very surprise move, a longtime lieutenant of Warren Buffett, David Sokol, resigned from his position at Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Sokol had been considered a possible successor for Buffett’s post as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett also dropped a bombshell in a letter about Sokol: he said Sokol had purchased shares of Lubrizol, a specialty chemicals company which Berkshire announced it is buying, before Sokol convinced Buffett on the merits of the deal.

If Warren Buffett has one recommendation investors should follow, it's this: stay away from long-term fixed-income bets in U.S. dollars -- the dollar's purchasing power is heading south. According to Bloomberg, the Berkshire chief said in India yesterday: I would recommend against buying long-term fixed-dollar investments. If you ask me if the U.S. dollar is going to hold its purchasing power fully at the level of 2011, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years from now, I would tell you it will not. I would much rather own businesses. It’s very easy to take away the value of fixed-dollar investments.

Let the word go forth: On Friday, March 25, 2011, Warren Buffett predicted the decline of the U.S. dollar. In a speech given in New Delhi (where he's hunting up some cheap Indian stocks), the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A ) (NYSE: BRK-B ) warned investors to avoid "long-term fixed-dollar investments" such as 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds. Buffett worries that the $2.3 trillion in new money our government has pumped into the economy, when combined with interest rates so low they're practically giving money away, are combining to dilute the value of the dollar. As a result, Buffett warns:...

Sometimes the apple does fall very, very far from the tree. A must read essay by Howard Buffett, father of the "legendary" investor who initially was so very much against derivatives then promptly changed his tune, discusses fiat money and gold, and concludes that "human freedom rests on gold redeemable money." ... Buffett's father stresses the relation between money and freedom and contends that without a redeemable currency, an individual's freedom and one's access to property is dependent on goodwill of politicians. Buffett also says that paper money systems generally collapse and result in economic chaos. He goes on to...

In this exclusive story, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports the latest terror attack to America involves the possible use of poisons - simultaneous attacks targeting hotels and restaurants at many locations over a single weekend. A key Intelligence source has confirmed the threat as "credible." . . . The plot uncovered earlier this year is said to involve the use of two poisons - ricin and cyanide - slipped into salad bars and buffets. Of particular concern: The plotters are believed to be tied to the same terror group that attempted to blow up cargo planes over...

I know that we are all supposed to love Warren Buffett as the Sage of Omaha, businessman and all-around good guy, but I keep reading stories that make me wonder. Here's a story about Warren Buffett, the estate tax, and the life insurance industry. Did you know that the life insurance lobby is actively lobbying to restore the estate tax?  Why would the life insurance industry care about that? It turns out that ten percent of life insurance industry revenue is related to the estate tax. Wealthy people take out life insurance in order to reduce estate taxes because...

Reflections On An Ailing Society November 24, 2010 - by Victor Davis Hanson Buffetism Warren Buffet is once more calling for higher tax rates, in advising the Congress to revoke the Bush-era tax rates and apparently to return to those of the Clinton administration — reminiscent of the elder Gates touring the country stumping for a reinstatement of a substantial inheritance tax. Aside from the fact that the deficit is not due to falling revenues, but almost entirely a result of astronomical federal spending increases since 2000, this bromide is quite pathological, this peddling of elixirs that the sellers do...

Link only - Buffett Tells ABC Rich Americans Should Be Paying `a Lot' More in Taxes

In an exclusive interview on "This Week," Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told Christiane Amanpour that the rich should be paying more taxes and that the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy should be left to expire at the end of December. "If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further," Buffett said. "But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."...

Barack Obama announced on Wednesday that he will honor billionaire investor Warren Buffett with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the country's highest civilian honor. It is given to people who have made "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or... (continued)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will name Warren Buffet as one of fifteen winners of the 2010 Medal of Freedom, a White House official said on Wednesday. Buffet, one of the world's most successful investors who has donated a vast chunk of his multibillion dollar fortune to charity, will receive the medal at a White House ceremony early next year. .. Buffet is one of Obama's closest defenders in the business community..

For many years, I’ve been a fan of Warren Buffett’s long term approach to value investing. Understanding the value of a company, regardless of its momentary stock price, is a great long term investing strategy. But it pains me whenever I read commentary from Buffett that glosses over reality or is somehow self-serving. His OpEd in the NYT today – Pretty Good for Government Work – paints an artificially rosy picture of the Bailout, ignores the negatives, and omits his own financial interest in government actions. What might he have written if Sir Warren was dosed with some sodium pentothal...

Last year, big daddy Warren's investments paid off to the tune of $10 billion...

Buffett Bucks The Trend: Bond Portfolio Positioned For INFLATION Joe Weisenthal Aug. 10, 2010, 8:19 AM BREAKING! Not every major investment guru is walking further out on the yield curve in a bet on deflation. Bloomberg: Twenty-one percent of holdings including Treasuries, municipal debt, foreign-government securities and corporate bonds were due in one year or less as of June 30, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said in a filing Aug. 6. That compares with 18 percent on March 31, and 16 percent at the end of last year’s second quarter. The report goes on to speculate that this may be a reaction...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama discussed his efforts to stimulate the economy and create jobs with billionaire U.S. investor Warren Buffett in an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday, a White House official said. The White House held a series of events focused on job creation and the economy during the day, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a rebuke of Obama's economic agenda. .. Four months before the November congressional elections in which Democrats are fighting to keep majorities in Congress, Republicans have tried to paint Obama and his fellow Democrats as anti-business.

Singer Jimmy Buffett is just another mad Gulf Coast native when it comes to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but with an exception: He's got millions of fans and a way to help lift spirits over the seemingly endless crisis. --SNIP--Buffett, a supporter of President Barack Obama, said the roots of the spill lie with the administration of former President George Bush, which was often criticized for being too cozy with the petroleum industry.

Nibblin on great steaks Cancellin’ those tax breaks The whole damn Gulf, it’s covered in oil Playing my fiddle Watchin' Congress diddle Countin’ tax money from the pee-ons that toil Wastin away again in the West Wing Searching for my lost copy of “Rules….” I’m gonna claim that the right wing’s to blame Then they’ll think….that it isn’t my fault I don’t have any clues How to fix these folks blues Nothin' to show but this new golfer’s tan But it’s a real beauty Got it shirking my duty How I got elected, I haven’t a clue Wastin away again...

June 16, 2010, 7:00 am The $600 billion challenge Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett are asking the nation's billionaires to pledge to give at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death. If their campaign succeeds, it could change the face of philanthropy. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates figuring out how to get billionaires to give half. Flying cross-country in March, Bill Gates stopped in Omaha to lunch near the airport with Warren Buffett at a Hollywood Diner, giving it a small place in history as one venue where the two made plans...