Whatever your thoughts on the matter of the this little mortgage rescue are, you cannot ignore the toll it's taking on Warren Buffett. CNBC had him on this morning in a phone interview with Becky Quick, who called in from her vacation down the shore, and not even the thought of the Quickster frolicking out on Beach Haven could cheer the old boy up. He sounded downright sad and was clearly not himself. The reason I know this is because while the Oracle of O praised Paulson for doing "exactly the right thing," he failed to pepper any of his prose with trademarked out of nowhere analogies that marry aberrant sex fetish with folksy business wisdom. The pro couldn't even get it up to say something along the lines of "I am 100 percent behind this plan," instead simply noting that he "wouldn't change anything," and sighing audibly. To Buffett's credit, at one point he did tell Quick, "The government was on the hook in this position many, many decades ago when they got in this half slave/half free position where they said we don't guarantee Fannie and Freddie obligations, wink wink," but it was obvious to all his heart wasn't in it.
Buffett: Treasury 'Did Exactly the Right Thing' [CNBC]
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:29AM
There was a time when Mr Dairy Queen was loaded up to gills with Freddie Mac common, and he never said a peep about the weird quasi bondage relationship between Freddie and the feds.As I recall, he liked the monopoly and everything met his criteria for a sound, fundamentally well run business with superior management.
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:30AM
I thought I heard him mention mayo. Doesn't that qualify as a sex fetish?
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:31AM
planning on getting much use out of that BDSM tag?
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:32AM
DayMan.
Fighter of the Nightman.
Champion of the sun.
Master of karate,
and friendship for everyone.
-BeckyBootFan
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:37AM
the preceding are four of the coolest posts I've ever read here, and none of them is mine.
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:38AM
Oh, and this has nothing to do with Buffet, directly, but did anyone notice that on the biggest trading day of the entire freaking credit crisis the *LSE computers bugged out?*
That doesn't happen in an open outcry environment.
Oh, you never heard of open outcry?
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:41AM
BACK to your old (young) self, Bess. Man, if clever lines were breasts...
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:44AM
best.shorting.opportunity.ever.
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:44AM
What are the odds of Becky beach vacation photos showing up on Page 6 now that she's told the world where she is staying this week?
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:46AM
@ 9, who cares?
lemme know when Bess is on Page 6.
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 10:56AM
I think this calls for the ole 'Bessy-baroo'. Ohhhh Bessy Bessy Bessy
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 11:04AM
@ 8 -- a standard response by powerless youngsters anytime something they don't understand happens in the markets.
Yet, oddly, eerily, I get the same feeling.
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 11:12AM
I wonder if becky will be taking advantage of the $1 Soco and Lime shots during the Shell's Thunder Thursday?
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 11:30AM
@12
fair enough. if i'm wrong, i'll get whacked. oh well its only money.
#8
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 11:40AM
IT IS ***NOW*** TOO LATE TO SHORT FRE/FNM
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 11:53AM
@ 12 'it's only money'
and someone else's, at that.
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 11:56AM
Buffett's my hero.
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 12:10PM
That pic looks like he's thinking, "OW, my leg!" whilst sitting on the floor of an elevator...
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 12:20PM
Buffett did quote Mae West "I used to be Snow White, but I drifted"... so there was some sexual overtones going on.
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 12:23PM
I've fallen and I can't get up!!!!!
Posted by guest , Sep 08, 2008 1:13PM
that's what he looks like just before he crawls under his expansive mahogany desk and curls himself into the fetal position.
Posted by Anal_yst , Sep 08, 2008 1:28PM
all I see is that scene of Peter from Family Guy...Ahhhhhh.....Ahhhhhh....Ahhhhh...
Posted by FUNdamental , Sep 08, 2008 1:37PM
@anal - reminds me of Brady from this weekend. FUCK ME.