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12 Oct 2011 20:16

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Biz: Warren Buffett made lots of money in 2010, paid fairly low taxes

  • $63 million dollars in 2010 alone for Mr. Berkshire Hathaway source
  • » And he only paid 17.4% in taxes: Buffett, whose monetary gains are the subject of scrutiny because of the fact that he’s the inspiration for Obama’s “Buffett Rule” (a notable part of the president’s jobs plan), released the earnings after being prodded by Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, a Republican. Of note: Just $39,814,784 of his earnings were taxable, with the rest going to deductions and exemptions (like, say, his fairly robust charitable givings). And in case you’re wondering, Warren’s tax rate is low largely because he makes most of his income through investing. In the end, how much did he pay in taxes? A paltry $7 million (or a mere nine percent in taxes on adjusted gross income).
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Sep 2011 10:29

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Politics: Paul Ryan: Obama’s “Buffett Rule” equivalent to “class warfare”

  • Class warfare … may make for really good politics, but it makes for rotten economics.
  • Rep. Paul Ryan • Coming out, guns blazing, against Obama’s plan to raise the tax rate for the super-rich. Ryan, speaking on “Fox News Sunday,”also claimed that the tax would be in effect a “double tax” on investments, and would discourage investors from putting their money into the economy. “If you tax something more, you get less of it,” Ryan said. “If you tax job creators more, you get less job creation. If you tax their investment more, you get less investment.” Mitch McConnell, speaking on “Meet the Press,” had similar concerns about the “Buffett Rule,” which we found out about last night. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Sep 2011 20:03

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Politics: Obama to make tax-the-wealthy push … and credit Warren Buffett

  • Remember how Warren Buffett wrote that the government should raise the taxes of the super-wealthy … you know, folks like him? Well, it looks like someone with a lot of power to put that plan into action read that New York Times editorial. Obama’s going to make a push to tax the super-wealthy (those who make more than $1 million per year) at the same rate as the middle-class, and he’s calling it the “Buffett Rule.” Great selling point for Obama, but will it be enough for all the other rich people in Congress? Good question. (photo via Medill DC) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Aug 2011 10:31

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Biz: Warren Buffett invests a ton of cash in struggling Bank of America

  • $5 billion investment from Warren Buffett to Bank of America source
  • » Giving it to the needy: Our boy Warren Buffett, who recently took the U.S. government to task for not raising taxes on the rich, is giving a big cash infusion to a company that’s struggling build confidence in investors. It’s taken a hit on the stock market — its shares are down nearly 30 percent since the beginning of August and it just announced some huge job cuts — and it owns a couple of properties, Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, noted for their spectacular combustions during the financial crisis. Buffett’s deal is pretty sweet — a 6 percent annual dividend and a 5 percent premium if he buys back the stock — but he nonetheless sounds like he’s doing it out of respect for the company. “I am impressed with the profit-generating abilities of this franchise, and that they are acting aggressively to put their challenges behind them,” Buffett said in a statement. “Bank of America is focused on their customers and on serving them well. That’s what customers want, and that’s the company’s strategy.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Aug 2011 02:48

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Biz: Starbucks CEO to corporations: Get off your butt and hire some people!

  • Record levels of cash are piling up in corporate treasuries, idling. The only way to break this cycle of fear is to break it.
  • Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz • Following the lead of Warren Buffett and pushing for more responsibility from those that can afford it. While Buffett went after super-rich taxpayers; Schultz instead is going after corporations that are sitting on piles of cash, yet are staying on the sidelines and choosing not to hire more people — or worse, putting that money into political campaigns in hopes of putting business-friendly leadership in power in 2012. While Starbucks has had union issues and gay rights issues crop up recently, the company does have a reputation for treating its employees better than most corporations of its size. Kudos, Howard. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Aug 2011 00:26

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Politics: Warren Buffett: Tax me, please! Make me pay more money!

  • I know well many of the mega-rich and, by and large, they are very decent people. They love America and appreciate the opportunity this country has given them. Many have joined the Giving Pledge, promising to give most of their wealth to philanthropy. Most wouldn’t mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering.
  • Warren Buffett • Arguing in an editorial for the New York Times (titled, fittingly, “Stop coddling the super-rich”) that Congress needs to raise his taxes and those of people with incomes topping $1 million. “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress,” he writes. “It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.” Wait … a super-rich guy offering more money up in taxes? Be still our hearts. And don’t tell the Koch brothers … they might disagree with this stance. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Apr 2011 17:06

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Biz: Warren Buffett: Don’t not raise the debt ceiling, Congress

  • Protip: Trust a guy with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. During Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in Omaha, the investor icon suggested that if Congress failed to raise the federal debt ceiling in the middle of May (as some completely uninformed RedState blogger suggested and Timothy Geithner pleaded against), it would be the “most asinine act” in the chamber’s history. And Congress has done a lot of stupid crap in their day. Perhaps we should listen to this highly-regarded rich guy! (photo by Medill DC‘s Flickr photostream) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Apr 2011 11:04

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Biz: That was a big loan: Goldman Sachs just paid back Warren Buffett

  • $5
    billion     the amount Warren Buffett loaned to Goldman Sachs at the nadir of the financial crisis back in 2008; wish we could loan out that kind of cash
  • $5.64 billion the amount they paid Warren back last quarter, including interest earned — that’s on top of dividends they already paid out source
  • » A pretty hefty one-time charge: While Goldman Sachs’ profits for the current quarter, $2.74 billion, were down 21 percent from a year earlier because of the payday to their sugar daddy, if you don’t count the payment to Warren, their profits — $8.38 billion — would have been up by 49 percent from a year earlier. In other words, they’re richer than we are and Wall Street is celebrating.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Mar 2011 21:45

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Biz: Carlos Slim: The world’s richest person, two years in a row

  • $74
    billion     the total worth of extremely rich Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim
  • $20
    billion     the increase in the dude’s fortune THIS YEAR ALONE source
  • » Widening his lead: Carlos Slim has not only benefited by expanding his own personal wealth (we’re sure that New York Times investment was a huge part of all that … heh), but the two guys directly behind him – Bill Gates and Warren Buffett – have been giving away much of their wealth lately. Slim has too, but he’s kept a tighter grip on it than those two.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Dec 2010 10:10

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Biz: Mark Zuckerberg, people we don’t care about sign “Giving Pledge”

  • 50 number of rich people who have offered most of their wealth to charity with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett
  • 16 number of new names on the list, including Steve Case, Carl Icahn and … Mark Zuckerberg source
  • » The only name people care about: Is it us, or does the Mark Zuckerberg one seem designed to make people look for ulterior motives? Because it seems that’s what people are already doing. You know, nobody ever questioned BILL GATES for this, and he had a lot more public relations work to do after that antitrust stuff than Zuckerberg ever did.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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