No. of Recommendations: 15
It really is incredible how many loyal brkers respond to news and disclosure. Tax returns do not disclose current positions. Buffett did not call into cnbc but Sorkin referenced how Buffett responded to the Sokol affair. Perhaps Barron’s will cover it tomorrow. I’m sure Buffett is speaking to the board this morning.
Boy you are really worked up about this. If ProPublica had found something worse than what they published, they would have gone with that. What they did publish does not bother me.
Would your tizzy over this dissipate if Warren put out a press release showing that he owned WFC, JNJ and WMT for decades prior to the personal sales? How many decades would it take to ease your concern?
We have long known that Buffett had purchased 100 shares each of quite a few companies in order to "subscribe" to their annual reports. After living as long as Buffett and several stock splits later, it is quite possible that he owns quite a few different common stocks. I don't think there is a conflict if Berkshire buys or sells something he hasn't touched in his personal account in 50 years.
Hell, the WFC example in the article didn't even allege that Berkshire was trading the stock one way or the other. Just that a Fortune article "claimed" that Wells had gone up because Warren had expressed confidence in it. And he sold it cheap, likely for personal tax reasons, in April 2009. I don't see the conflict.
