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1. It's not inconceivable for him to simultaneously think that a) Sachs was a good investment, b) the bailout is the right thing overall, but c) it introduces s

1. It's not inconceivable for him to simultaneously think that a) Sachs was a good investment, b) the bailout is the right thing overall, but c) it introduces some issues that cause suboptimal performance elsewhere in his portfolio. 2. I don't see this little snippet as him complaining so much as explaining the moral hazard that the bailout has introduced. 3. Buffet operates on a very long time scale, so I'm not sure it's useful to say that "lately" his behavior has been uncharacteristic. Let's review in a decade or two. 4. You sound like you're having a crisis of faith. It's going to be ok :)

pj 18y ago
You are right on all your points, I don't disagree. That's exactly what it is, A crisis of faith. I don't know ... I had hope in Obama, not faith, but hope and he's disappointing me. What change is he bringing? He's exacerbating problems, not fixing them. There's no one to trust anymore. I didn't trust them before and for good reason, look what they did. I still trusted Buffett though, but now I'm losing that... It just seems like the rational decisions are getting squashed. It's like all these decisions are anti-evolutionary. We want the bad ideas to die. We want good ideas to thrive. We just continue to believe and spout lies around and eat it like porridge. It's gross. It makes me feel dirty. It's wrong. It's disgusting really. I'm ashamed at what this country that I love has done to the world. Ashamed. Look, I love America. I love this place. Every single one of us won the lottery being born here. We didn't choose to be born here anymore than a poverty stricken child chose to be born into that. The problem is that we won this lottery and now we've squandered it all away on fat cars, fat houses, fat bodies... We've lied to the world and ourselves for greed. For more imaginary money. Stealing. We should be punished. We should feel the pain of our wrongs so that we don't do it again. Instead, here's some ice cream and a nice corporate jet, courtesy of hard working tax payers. A crisis of faith... I guess you could call it that yeah...
- rokhayakebe 18y ago
  PJ, Obama has been in office only 30 some days. Would you expect the new Yahoo CEO to reinvent the company in 30 days? Could you build a solid enterprise level application in 30 days? Could you double your current monthly revenue in 30 days? No. No and No. Then how in the world can one person change the lives of 300M people (or maybe 6 billion) over 30 days? Seriously what do you expect? Be patient and work on your startup and try to create jobs from it. The money you will generate will allow your employees to purchase more goods, allowing some local business to sustain, allowing those business owners to pay their employees, allowing those employees to pay for their education and so on....
  - newt0311 18y ago
    But thats the problem. Obama has already changed the lives of the 300M people in this country or at least helped in the process. The stimulus bill that he helped pass has permanently expanded the US federal government. His budget will go even farther in that direction.
    - pj 18y ago
      Exactly.
      - ryanwaggoner 18y ago
        With all due respect, what did you really expect from him? He ran on a platform of supporting the bailout and expanding the role and scope of the federal government.
        pj 18y ago
        I don't remember anything in his platform about supporting a bailout. I don't even remember it being an issue during the campaign and nothing about a bailout is mentioned here: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/bios/view.bg?articleid=1063110 http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/bios... So, what did I expect from him? Change. What has he delivered? More of the status quo, big spending, bad decisions, and an extreme lack of long range vision. Instead, he's solving acute problems by putting the younger generation in even more debt. He has blown the budget deficit from $500B to over a trillion. That's not change, that more of the same.
        ryanwaggoner 18y ago
        http://news.google.com/archivesearch?ned=us&hl=en&q=obama+bailout&um=1&sugg=d&sa=N&lnav=d1&as_ldate=2008&as_hdate=2008&hdrange=2009%2C2009 http://news.google.com/archivesearch?ned=us&hl=en&q=...
        18y ago
- nostrademons 18y ago
  > I had hope in Obama, not faith, but hope and he's disappointing me. What change is he bringing? He's exacerbating problems, not fixing them. It's been two months. Real change takes years. Give him some time. I'm not a huge fan of the bailout either, but I think that just getting rid of all the claims of executive privilege and putting qualified people in office and trying to run the government with more transparency are huge steps forwards. Think of it this way: we know where the bailout money is going, if you bother to pay attention to the net. Would Bush even have allowed public debate?
  - ryanwaggoner 18y ago
    It hasn't even been two months...it's been six weeks.

pj 18y ago

You are right on all your points, I don't disagree. That's exactly what it is, A crisis of faith. I don't know ... I had hope in Obama, not faith, but hope and he's disappointing me. What change is he bringing? He's exacerbating problems, not fixing them. There's no one to trust anymore. I didn't trust them before and for good reason, look what they did. I still trusted Buffett though, but now I'm losing that... It just seems like the rational decisions are getting squashed. It's like all these decisions are anti-evolutionary. We want the bad ideas to die. We want good ideas to thrive. We just continue to believe and spout lies around and eat it like porridge. It's gross. It makes me feel dirty. It's wrong. It's disgusting really. I'm ashamed at what this country that I love has done to the world. Ashamed. Look, I love America. I love this place. Every single one of us won the lottery being born here. We didn't choose to be born here anymore than a poverty stricken child chose to be born into that. The problem is that we won this lottery and now we've squandered it all away on fat cars, fat houses, fat bodies... We've lied to the world and ourselves for greed. For more imaginary money. Stealing. We should be punished. We should feel the pain of our wrongs so that we don't do it again. Instead, here's some ice cream and a nice corporate jet, courtesy of hard working tax payers. A crisis of faith... I guess you could call it that yeah...

rokhayakebe 18y ago
PJ, Obama has been in office only 30 some days. Would you expect the new Yahoo CEO to reinvent the company in 30 days? Could you build a solid enterprise level application in 30 days? Could you double your current monthly revenue in 30 days? No. No and No. Then how in the world can one person change the lives of 300M people (or maybe 6 billion) over 30 days? Seriously what do you expect? Be patient and work on your startup and try to create jobs from it. The money you will generate will allow your employees to purchase more goods, allowing some local business to sustain, allowing those business owners to pay their employees, allowing those employees to pay for their education and so on....
- newt0311 18y ago
  But thats the problem. Obama has already changed the lives of the 300M people in this country or at least helped in the process. The stimulus bill that he helped pass has permanently expanded the US federal government. His budget will go even farther in that direction.
  - pj 18y ago
    Exactly.
    - ryanwaggoner 18y ago
      With all due respect, what did you really expect from him? He ran on a platform of supporting the bailout and expanding the role and scope of the federal government.
      - pj 18y ago
        I don't remember anything in his platform about supporting a bailout. I don't even remember it being an issue during the campaign and nothing about a bailout is mentioned here: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/bios/view.bg?articleid=1063110 http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/bios... So, what did I expect from him? Change. What has he delivered? More of the status quo, big spending, bad decisions, and an extreme lack of long range vision. Instead, he's solving acute problems by putting the younger generation in even more debt. He has blown the budget deficit from $500B to over a trillion. That's not change, that more of the same.
        ryanwaggoner 18y ago
        http://news.google.com/archivesearch?ned=us&hl=en&q=obama+bailout&um=1&sugg=d&sa=N&lnav=d1&as_ldate=2008&as_hdate=2008&hdrange=2009%2C2009 http://news.google.com/archivesearch?ned=us&hl=en&q=...
        18y ago
nostrademons 18y ago
> I had hope in Obama, not faith, but hope and he's disappointing me. What change is he bringing? He's exacerbating problems, not fixing them. It's been two months. Real change takes years. Give him some time. I'm not a huge fan of the bailout either, but I think that just getting rid of all the claims of executive privilege and putting qualified people in office and trying to run the government with more transparency are huge steps forwards. Think of it this way: we know where the bailout money is going, if you bother to pay attention to the net. Would Bush even have allowed public debate?
- ryanwaggoner 18y ago
  It hasn't even been two months...it's been six weeks.