Sick of Buffett -- Mike Bigley

I'm am sick of Buffett shooting off his mouth about things he knows nothing about. Additionally, I'm very irritated that Buffett has chosen to hold a fund-raiser for Berack Hussein Obama. I type this after reading the article referenced at the end of the message. I had to rant, and yes....preach to the choir!

Buffett is a type of "savant", much like Raymond Babbitt in the movie "Rainman".

Warren Buffett is quirky and odd much like the Rainman but with only slightly better social skills. He's highly intelligent but has a very narrow focus and frame of reference toward life in general. Buffett is superlative at evaluating business deals, investment strategies, and generally as a capital allocator for Berkshire-Hathaway. That is basically his "circle of competence". Once he ventures outside that "circle of competence" his opinions are no better and most often worse than those of the average person.

Buffett suffers of wealth-guilt....he just does. It's impossible for any reasonably intelligent, rational person to have several billion dollars, adequate health, and the comfort and security that the U.S. provides, and yet observe the widespread poverty and suffering throughout the world and NOT feel guilty. Of course like all liberals, Buffett prefers to assuage his guilt with "other people's money", not his own.

Buffett also suffers from being insulated by his great wealth. Though Buffett is portrayed, and loves to play the part of, a very frugal person, this is simply a byproduct of his own quirkiness, not the driving force. Regardless of his lifestyle, for decades, he has never had to worry about financial security and this has distorted his opinions and approach to life in general. Though he's portrayed as an ordinary Midwestern person, in reality he has no concept of what it's like to live life without exponentially excessive financial security. He therefore is widely out of touch with real life in such regard.

So why do people focus on Buffett's opinions outside his "circle of competence"? Well, much like the foolish people in the movie, "Being There", where everyone in the country from the President on down mistook the simpleton, Chance (the) Gardener, for an oracle, people have an awful habit of extrapolating a singular, narrow talent to far-reaching knowledge of everything. Think of the clueless followers of our half-witted, talentless ex-vice president, Al Gore and his Nobel Peace Prize for the mythical global warming. Why would anyone consider Al Gore an expert on anything, let alone anything scientific?

In Buffett's younger days, when journalists or stockholders would ask him about non-Berkshire topics, he'd thoughtfully and advisedly defer, stating "he had nothing to add". He was disciplined enough to NOT venture outside his "circle of competence". But as Buffett has grown older, or maybe it's simply years of adulation and constant requests for his opinions on everything, as with most humans, Buffett's ego has gotten the better of him.

Buffett may not know anything substantive about so many of the things he's asked about, but hey!, it doesn't mean he's not willing to give his opinion....knowledgeable or not.

Buffett's judgment and track record on "macro" economics, politics, and evaluating character in other people is abysmal. Whether it's the near-disastrous metal commodities hedge against the dollar years back, his lack of understanding of personal property rights and the Constitution, to his assessment that "we have the right guys in place" to solve our economic woes....referring to our "Excuse-maker-in-chief", President Crybaby Bozo, "Helicopter-Ben Bernanke ("we'll drop dollars from helicopters"), or the tax-cheating, former Wall-Street do-nothing, Geithner. Two years later, $4 trillion more in debt, 9+% unemployment, zero-GDP growth, stagflation....how's Mr. Buffett's judgment working out so far?????

Anyway, his latest foray into national politics and macro-economics is more of the same silly lib/socialist myths. In closing, I refer to the well-written article below:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/08/the-stooge-of-omaha.php

The Stooge of Omaha:

"We wrote here about Charles Koch’s elegant rejoinder to Warren Buffett’s very silly op-ed, in which Buffett requested that the federal government raise his taxes. The flaws in Buffett’s reasoning, and his epic hypocrisy, have been widely noted. Some of the main points can be summarized as follows:

1) Nothing prevents Buffett from contributing more money to the federal treasury, but, like every liberal I know of, he has chosen not to do so.

2) Buffett’s tax rate is lower than his secretary’s because his income consists entirely of capital gains, while hers is ordinary income."...........

Rant over....