Charlie Rose

Kelly  10/05/2008 07:40 AM Report

This is in response to Joseph Goldman's comment posted on Oct.2. You, sir, are an idiot. How can you call Warren Buffett a "blithering old fool" ? He's a self-made multi-billionaire, while you are just a bitter and jealous loser. If you're so smart, why ain't you rich? Where are your billions? You claim that he "preaches from the perch of insider knowledge". Well unless you can prove that he has used inside information, then that is libel. You better hope he doesn't decide to sue you. Fortunately, you are such an insignificant bug that he would not even bother to waste his time on an ant like you.

I don't know what you are referring to when you claim that the American system is fundamentally broken and is just about screwing the next guy. It sounds like you are a bitter fool who probably bought an expensive home that you couldn't really afford by using an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), and now that the bank is foreclosing you are mad at the world. You resent intelligent, financially secure people like Buffett who would never make the type of idiotic mistakes that you made. So you claim that people like him see the world through rose-colored glasses. You want other people to share your pain, but the truth is you made your bed and now you must lie in it. Buffett has a good life because he is smarter than you. His world is rose-colored because he went out and made it that way. He has also given back a lot more to the world (in the form of charitable contributions, shared wisdom, and income taxes) than you could in a thousand life times. You need to grow up crybaby and stop blaming the rest of the world for your own mistakes.

tony  10/03/2008 11:04 PM Report

This is a response to Kelly oct 3,

I couldnt have said it better myself!

Joseph Goldman  10/02/2008 12:30 PM Report

Warren Buffett is a blithering old fool whose cheerleading for the US economy, along with Alan Greenspan's failed policies are part of the problem. Buffett believes that a credit economy can last indefinitely as long as he continues to look at the world through rose colored glasses and preach from the perch of supposed insider knowledge that he's afforded because he's wealthy. Ridiculous. If he knew about all of the risky business being done before this crisis, why wasn't he on every talk show and testifying before Congress warning of what was to come, instead of now saying it's all due to isolated instances of greed? He is prolonging the agony by saying that all the economy needs is to be propped up just one more time. The economy is systemically broken, fundamentally wrong and amoral and no amount of bailouts or oversight is going to fix it. We need a real re-assessment of what an American economy should be about and what it means to be an American. It used to be about an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. All that it's about now is getting away with screwing the next guy by pushing the law to its moral limits. Where is Buffett's indignation? Where is your indignation, Charlie Rose.

All you do is pimp for powerful personalities. Why don't you have on some of the people that are being put out of their homes this month to dispute Buffett's view of the cheery future of the US economy? Or are you as out of touch with reality as he is?

Marci Smith  10/02/2008 12:24 AM Report

Charlie, PLEASE let the man [Warren Buffet\ talk. No offense intended, but YOU are not the richest guy in the world and during these crazy financial times, I'd like to hear Buffet's comments uninterrupted.

Other than that, keep the dialogue coming. Great guests!

Christopher  08/08/2008 03:09 AM Report

"When a girl walks down the street, do you think about it for a moment Charlie..." Great one.

Bill  06/30/2008 09:36 PM Report

Rebecca:

From wikipedia:

Hill, Harriman and the Northern Pacific Corner

In the late 1880s, the Villard regime, in another one of its costly missteps, attempted to stretch the Northern Pacific from the Twin Cities to the all-important rail hub of Chicago, Illinois. A costly project was begun in creating a union station and terminal facilities for a Northern Pacific which had yet to arrive.

Rather than build directly down to Chicago, perhaps following the Mississippi River as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy had done, Villard chose to lease the Wisconsin Central. Some backers of the Wisconsin Central had long associations with Villard, and an expensive lease was worked out between the two companies which was only undone by the Northern Pacific's second bankruptcy.

The ultimate result was that the Northern Pacific was left without a direct connection to Chicago, the primary interchange point for most of the large U.S. railroads. Fortunately, the Northern Pacific was not alone. James J. Hill, controller of the Great Northern, which was completed between the Twin Cities and Puget Sound in 1893, also lacked a direct connection to Chicago. Hill went looking for a road with an existing route between the Twin Cities and Chicago which could be rolled into his holdings and give him a stable path to that important interchange. At the same time, Edward Henry Harriman, head of the Union Pacific Railroad, was also looking for a road which could connect his company to Chicago.

The road both Harriman and Hill looked at was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. To Harriman, the Burlington was a road which paralleled much of his own, and offered tantalizing direct access to Chicago. For Hill as well there was the possibility of a high-speed link directly with Chicago. Though the Burlington did not parallel the Great Northern or the Northern Pacific, it would give them a powerful railroad in the central West. Harriman was the first to approach the Burlington's aging chieftain, the irascible Charles Elliott Perkins. The price for control of the Burlington, as set by Perkins, was $200 a share, more than Harriman was willing to pay. Hill, however, met the price, and control of the Burlington was divided equally at about 48.5 percent each between the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific.

Not to be outdone, Harriman now came up with a crafty plan: Buy a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific and use its power on the Burlington to place friendly directors upon its board. On May 3, 1901, Harriman began his stock raid which would become known as the Northern Pacific Corner. By the end of the day he was short just 40,000 shares of common stock. Harriman placed an order to cover this, but was overridden by his broker, Jacob Schiff, of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Hill, on the other hand, reached the vacationing Morgan in Italy and managed to place an order for 150,000 shares of common stock. Though Harriman might be able to control the preferred stock, Hill knew the company bylaws allowed for the holders of the common stock to vote to retire the preferred.

In three days, however, the Harriman-Hill imbroglio managed to wreak havoc on the stock market. Northern Pacific stock was quoted at $150 a share on May 6, and is reported to have traded as much as $1,000 a share behind the scenes. Harriman and Hill now worked to settle the issue for brokers to avoid panic. Hill, for his part, attempted to avoid future stock raids by placing his holdings in the Northern Securities Company, a move which would be undone by the Supreme Court in 1904 under the auspices of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Harriman was not immune either; he was forced to break up his holdings in the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific Railroad a few years later.

rebecca r lynch  05/30/2007 09:39 PM Report

okease explain about the comment from warren buffet about the most north eastern pleca.

thanks, becca

Taken to the cleaner.  05/29/2007 08:52 PM Report

" ... 2006 best year ever..."

yah... from the pockets of homeowners in rip off insurance premiums like in Florida!

reno  05/29/2007 08:19 PM Report

why is every thing buy are you that poor or that greedy