"I don't find even a hint of a clickbait." "He still broke those <insider trading rules>" "He even made a specific example about not owning Wells Fargo in his personal portfolio and..he did." "I can't understand people excusing him, a lie is a lie, no matter how harmless and casts a huge shadow on his reputation, integrity and trustability." "I don't even understand the point of having a personal portfolio. It's not illegal or anything. But it's just..odd." "Buffet who's built his personal brand on condemning such a lack of transparency."
He said he preferred Wells Fargo, but Berkshire was “buying Wells Fargo stock and that takes me out of the business of buying Wells Fargo,” so he bought shares of Chase for his personal account because it was his second choice.
“That’s one of the problems I have,” he said. “I can’t be buying what Berkshire is buying and I’ve got some money around and therefore I go into my second choices or into tiny little companies.”
By the way CNBC and Probublica both asked Buffet for comments and he declined.
This piece demonstrates that Buffet is human.
AND…
It took a lot of courage by ProPublica to put out this piece knowing they would deal with the wrath of the Buffet faithful. No one had any issues when they were reporting on Clarence Thomas.
Unfortunately there is quite the cult-like mentality around Buffet. He is worshipped by many who fail to see that while gifted he is no different than any other human.
By this I mean he is capable of trading on personal benefit, fear, avarice and ignorance just like any other human being.
The trades that Congress continually make are much more suspect. I don't understand why there's not more focus on those trades where there is blatant corruption.
How's that relevant to him lying about it and being a hypocrite?
We don't even know if there were more instances, because only sales are reported, but not buys.
Man has preached about insider trading for decades, he himself condemned such activities, he himself encoded the rules.
He still broke those.
As someone who's always thought of Buffet as sort of a role model, it is a sad to see this happen. I have seen him speak and preach about those just too much just to find out it was simply not true.
He even made a specific example about not owning Wells Fargo in his personal portfolio and..he did.
I can't understand people excusing him, a lie is a lie, no matter how harmless and casts a huge shadow on his reputation, integrity and trustability.
I don't even understand the point of having a personal portfolio. It's not illegal or anything. But it's just..odd.
It's really baffling how many people jump on the ship of underplaying this, especially with someone like Buffet who's built his personal brand on condemning such a lack of transparency.