[IP] Warren Buffet attacks executive greed & Bush Tax Plan

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger@ibd.com>
Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 18:52:28 -0700
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>, Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Warren Buffet attacks executive greed & Bush Tax Plan

US sage attacks executive greed
>From Abigail Rayner in Omaha, Nebraska
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-669779,00.html

WARREN BUFFETT, the US investor whose folksy style masks one of the
shrewdest minds in corporate America, used the annual gathering of his
Berkshire Hathaway vehicle to launch a fierce attack on US executive greed
and President Bush¹s planned tax cuts.

The shareholder meeting in Mr Buffett¹s home town of Omaha, Nebraska, which
attracts some 14,000 ³Buffeteers², is dubbed the ³Woodstock for Capitalists²
and is a fixture in the investment calendar. But this year¹s gathering at
times seemed more like an antiglobalisation rally.

The second richest man in the world, Mr Buffett, known as the ³Sage of
Omaha², criticised plans for tax cuts that he said were designed to fleece
the poor and reward the rich.

³I am not for the Bush plan. It screams of injustice. The main beneficiaries
will be people like me and Charlie,² he said, referring to the Berkshire
Hathaway vice-chairman Charlie Munger. Mr Buffett said the tax plan was
equivalent to ³us giving a lesser percentage of our incomes to Washington
than the people working in our shoe factories².

He called on investors to rise up and revolt over colossal executive pay
packages, saying in the past 20 years there had been ³an enormous disparity
in the rates of compensation between people at the top and people at the
bottom, and a disconnect between people at the top and the shareowners who
give them the money².

³Arise shareholders,² he concluded, raising both palms skyward. Famed for
his integrity and modest lifestyle, Mr Buffett paid himself $100,000
(£62,000) in salary and a further $300,000 in bonuses last year. He still
lives in the grey stucco house he bought in 1956 for $31,500.

Berkshire Hathaway, the insurance-to-candy conglomerate that he chairs,
would report record operating profits of $1.7 billion in the first quarter,
benefiting from the strength of the insurance sector, he said. This was
double the $818 million reported for the first three months of 2001.

Mr Buffett reported a ³soft² performance of Berkshire¹s consumer businesses,
citing weak consumer spending power, which he claimed was not fairly
reflected in the figures for US gross domestic product.

Mr Buffett said Berkshire had accumulated investible cash ? or ³float² ? of
$42.5 billion, up from about $37 billion a year ago. The conglomerate owns a
diverse range of companies including Geico, the sixth largest auto insurer
in the US, and General Re, a leading reinsurer.

Last Friday the company announced plans to buy McLane, a wholesale grocery
distributor owned by Wal-Mart, for $1.5 billion.

When asked about the increase in dubious litigation in the US, Mr Buffett
acknowledged the problem but seemed more concerned about the growing number
of plaintiffs with a genuine grievance against a US corporation.
--
Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC.
Voice: 408-882-4755 eFax: +1-408-490-2868
http://www.ibd.com



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