Archive for May 4, 2009
Warren Buffett & Wells Fargo – Who to Believe?
Shares of Wells Fargo Surge as Buffett Pounds the Table: At this year’s annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting, Warren Buffett,
[T]outed Wells Fargo, which currently makes up 16% of Berkshire’s investment portfolio, as a ‘fabulous’ bank which is well-positioned to make it through this financial mess.
The flip side from a guy I trust:
Wells Fargo will probably suffer enormous losses from Wachovia’s Option ARM portfolio (originally from Golden West) and from their own HELOC portfolio. The estimated losses will apparently be broken out into the 12 categories listed in the Fed’s White Paper and that should show substantial losses for Wells Fargo in these categories.
Excuse me while I tear my hair out.
Fox News Awaits Orders as to How to Spin Supreme Court Ruling Favoring Immigrants
Earlier today the United States Supreme Court ruled, that
[T]he government has been overstepping the boundaries of identity theft legislation when targeting immigrants who use phony citizenship documents to acquire jobs.
It’s meaty. So how is Fox “News” reporting this unanimous ruling in favor of “illegals” made by a court headed by Bush appointee John Roberts? Guess it’s having a tough time figuring out what to say because roughly seven hours on it isn’t reporting this news at all — in obvious places at least. Here’s Fox’s home page as of 8:00 p.m. ET:
And here’s Fox’s special Supreme Court page:
Nada. But I bet the wires between Fox, the GOP, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation and, oh, Tom Tancredo are on fire right now.
Democrats Have a Real Problem in Arlen Specter
A new Quinnipiac poll out today shows that Democrats in Pennsylvania would overwhelmingly vote for Arlen Specter in a contest between he and both Pat Toomey and Tom Ridge.
But Specter is a Democrat in name only. The Democratic party must find a genuine Democrat to run against Specter if it is to be true to itself. The Democratic machine must not throw its money and its weight behind a man who has openly stated that he is opposed to core Democratic values. If that were to happen, Arlen Specter (and the GOP) could potentially laugh all the way to his swearing in, while Pennsylvania Democrats would be screwed, by their own party no less. Nothing all that unusual but let’s nip that in the bud right now.
How Much Will George W. Bush’s Library Cost?
Today we learned that W. has managed to raise $100 million in 100 days for his planned library and “policy institute.” “Some say” the complex could cost $500 million when all is said and done. (It’s going to take a lot of money to refurbish his image and to house all his presidential stuff, like what’s left of that pretzel he choked on, his codpiece and that rubber turkey he paraded around with in Iraq.)
Anyway, $500 million?! Remember when the right went nuts and had a months-long fit when Bill Clinton spent $165 million on his library?
Yep, it’s going to be interesting to see how much ol’ George spends and to listen to the outrage (as in, crickets).
What I Learned Today
(Updated below.)
Yesterday I read in my local paper that my state representative, Jack Pommer, a Democrat, has been fined $45,000+ for being 915 days late filing campaign finance reports. His excuse? “I’m just really bad at it.” And the dude sits on the Colorado state Budget Committee for God’s sake.
Today I read a transcript of CNBC’s Erin Burnett saying, “it your obligation in this country… [to] pay as little” in taxes “as you can.”
So what did I learn today? Well heck, I’m “just really bad” at filing out tax forms too but insofar as it’s my “obligation” to pay as little as I can, when it comes to filing my 2009 return, I’ll see what I can do to fulfill my “obligation,” but if I don’t get around to actually filing my return for oh, say 2-1/2 years, I’m sure the IRS will understand when I tell them “I’m just really bad at it.” And hey, maybe the government will bail me out and foot the bill for any penalties I might have to pay. Hey yeah, that’ll work.
Update:
And if it doesn’t — work, that is — maybe I’ll set up a litle something in the Cayman Islands so I can hang out in this building with 18,857 of my friends.
Running Out of Water
I believe that the issue of water — as it relates to global warming and overpopulation — will continue to move to the fore as an extreme emergency. A new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado has found some alarming trends with regard to the world’s major water sources, some of which are literally drying up.
Here is the Abstract, which leads to the report itself (PDF).
This Day in History
I never would have thought that the “@” symbol is almost 500 years old.
