Berkshire net sinks; Buffett says economy in shambles
Sat, Feb 28 10:52 PM
Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Warren Buffett's insurance and investment company, barely broke even in the fourth quarter because of losses on derivatives contracts tied to the stock market.
Profit fell 96 percent, the fifth straight quarterly decline, and Berkshire's net worth tumbled $10.9 billion in the year's final three months. Net worth per share fell 9.6 percent in 2008, only the second decline since Buffett began running Berkshire in 1965. It fell 6.2 percent in 2001.
My View:
The Oracle of Omaha once famously said "Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction". A person who is ideal of so many people around the world (not only US) did not practice what he preached! Derivatives if could be personified would have answered like this - "see, you called us financial weapons of mass destruction, now you will be the sure victim, AND we will target your reputation more that your wealth".
My respected Buffet has been faltering for quite some time and I once wrote my reaction in my indexviews blog about why Buffett could be advising wrong things. You can find that here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Welcome to allnewsviews. Please drop your comments here. All comments will be first moderated and then published, so refrain from using bad language or irrelevant comments.