Content adapted from this Zerohedge.com article : Source
Warren Buffett is considered by many to be the most successful investor of all time. It is difficult to dispute this notion with a stock price over $300,000 and a net worth nearing $100b. Nevertheless, it seems like Warren might not be the rags to riches story everyone proclaims.
Make no mistake, Buffett is a ruthless businessman. Over the years, he talked about investing in companies with "moats". He feels that one that is protected from competition is a safer bet. This anti-competitive stance is overlook by most. Yet it is the foundation for Warren's success. The only problem is that he embraces monopolies.
"The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power," Buffett said. "If you've got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you've got a very good business." The "big three" rating agencies—Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch—[controlled][4] 95 percent of the rating-agency market, an insurmountable advantage over would-be competitors.
"If you've got a good enough business, if you have a monopoly newspaper or if you have a network television station," Buffett concluded, "your idiot nephew could run it."
Buffett's reputation as America's top capitalist is misplaced. He is from the same ilk as a Russian Oligarch
Buffett makes no secret of his fondness for monopolies. He repeatedly highlights the key to his personal fortune: finding businesses surrounded by a monopoly moat, keeping competitors at bay. “[W]e think in terms of that moat and the ability to keep its width and its impossibility of being crossed,” Buffett told the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting in 2000. “We tell our managers we want the moat widened every year.”
Replacing the word "moat" with "monopoly" conveys the true meaning of Buffett's message. It should also get the regulators stirring. America is not suppose to allow monopolies to exist. In Buffett's case, not only do they go unfettered, he is revered for what he is doing.
Sadly, for America, this is not an isolated situation.
Over the past 40 years, however, the United States has not only failed to build bridges across monopoly moats; it has stocked those moats with alligators. Two-thirds of all US industries were more concentrated in 2012 than in 1997, The Economist has documented. Since the Reagan era, the federal government has abandoned antitrust enforcement, with markets for products like eyeglasses, toothpaste, beef, and beer whittled down to a few suppliers. This consolidation has vastly inflated corporate profits, damaged workers and consumers, stunted economic growth, and supercharged economic inequality.
Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Warren Buffett control more wealth than the 160 million poorest Americans combined. And Buffett doesn’t mind working the system to keep it that way. His net worth as of January is $87 billion, but Buffett says he paid only $1.8 million in taxes in 2015—a mere 0.002 percent of his wealth. According to Barclays, the new Republican tax law is projected to net his business a staggering $37 billion a year.
In short, Warren Buffett is at the head of the class when it comes to ripping off taxpayers, netting windfall profits, and ripping off and abusing customers. His ownership in the American Airlines, Well Fargo, and Clayton Homes all are known for abusing customers or engaging in illegal activity.
Non-adapted content found at zerohedge.com: Source
It's been clear for some time now that America does not favor capitalism; but rather favors a bastardized and elitist version of krony capitalism: corporatism.
Everybody knows that free markets are not free; liberal economics are not liberal; that corporations are people who operate above the law, or write their own laws...
The true is that the United States of America should be rebranded as the Corporate States of America because the states are not united and corporations run the show...
I heard that some cities were even offering Amazon the right to eventually tax its own employees and spend their taxes in any way they see fit...
If that is not a sign of the concretization of a long incremental process of a corporate takeover of a nation state; when corporations tax citizens and governments are sidelined to marginal tasks; much like national governments sidelined the church before hand...
Whoever is collecting taxes, tithes, and other fees in the end of the day has the control... That's why banks have been running the show for quite some time now, and soon corporations will be above governments...
Then; what recourse will the people have?
This is the anarchist dystopia that I pray the people will wake up to... The truth is, a corporation's power lies in its control of the market and their control of the circulation of currency...
In a monetary system, the only way to take back our power is to stop spending our money... If governments can be weakened enough the way the Church was in the prior early modern era, maybe there will be a window of opportunity for us to introduce something as dynamic and effective as capitalism might have been...
Probably this is what cryptocurrency is; and though the people will always be fighting an asymmetric war against those in power, with every new era and the passing off time come new opportunities...
We have to preserve the balance and be brave because these kinds of monumental transitions of wealth and power and the resulting instability and insecurity do result in severe loss, harm and danger as the power struggles intensify...
It's crazy but I think we are living in very interesting times... The good times of the late 20th century are all but over; soon, things will get really, really bad...
Then we can change the world because we'll have an army of people who have nothing to lose!
Stay alert everyone... xx
Great post. A nice addition to the above article - which I have noticed Buffett likes industries with big pricing power. He bought big into Apple which we all know the masses will be anything for a new iphone because they see it as a status symbol. He invests in big banks that have bank charters and massive borrowing abilities. He invests in airlines that have large economies of scale. He bets big on industries/companies that will never go down.
I agree corporations are totally taking over and that's crazy how much power Amazon has. Eventually, all governments will be broke and corporations will have all of the power I predict. That's why it is so important to get into a decentralized system like crypto now to protect yourself from all of this madness.
Cheers from Fitness Guy
Have you heard of the 'Freemen Living on the Land' movement? It's a libertarian movement where they believe your birth certificate is essentially you becoming a belonging of the corporate state of which ever country you live in and your social insurance number is essentially your bar-code.
They believe that many countries are now operating in bankruptcy and are therefore under admiralty law and that since the abolition of the gold standard, countries currency is backed not by gold but by the people tracked by their Social insurance numbers and treated as the counties property or essentially their slaves. They describe persons as creditors of the country's corporation. They may believe that the government controls secret bank accounts in their name as part of this theory, which may be accessed to pay off the countries debts.
None of the beliefs held by freemen have ever been supported by any court judgments or verdicts in anywhere though unfortunately. It would certainly erode our legal system if any judge were to rule in their favor.
Check out this video too, apparently Saudi Arabia has made this AI robot a legal entity in hopes of being able to tax the robot the same as they would tax a person, essentially the owner of the robot would have to pay taxes on the work the robots do so that when robots take our jobs the governement will still be able to collect taxes on that job. Sopia and AI unleashed on the blockchain.
This comment is one of the best posted. I concur hundredfold.
Thanks zer0 xx
But what he says, is actually right. Another thing is how ethical is it to say that, but business is very similar to the jungle. The strong eats weak.
Buffet is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He does not hide the fact that he enjoys controlling industries. His biography, 'Snowball' is to the point. He has also been trying to manipulate the real estate industry by buying Better Homes & Gardens, then inflating prices by 30%. I noticed, after he bought BHG that home prices went up significantly, then he had to lower the prices because people were not buying. Now they are stabilizing at a lower price. He's a robber baron like those of the early 1900s in spite of his 'good guy' demeanor .
"Our economic system, we claim, is founded on free and fair competition. "
Who is "we"... only libertarian saps believe that kind of drivel. Real capitalism is all about building predatory monopolies and oligopolies. Only government can challenge the forces of (monopoly) capitalism... which is why David Rockefeller pulled von Hayek out of the gutter to lead a libertarian/ Randian attack on government when government was relatively neutral.
Since the Sixties however, monopoly capital has captured government agencies and turned them into personal enforcers.
Warren Buffet is absolutely right.. If you've got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you've got a very good business.
One has got to monopolise he's business to reach a level of raising prices without affecting the sales.
Being successful involves much more than hardwork. It involves ruthless actions that might affect customers and the system in general. But that's the price of having success in everything one engages in and maintaining the spot at the top of the wealthiest list.
Im glad for this post being able to read. I’m certain Waren Buffet wouldn’t be where he is if not for his corruption, steeling from innocent people, his manipulative techniques and his work with the government. I think he is a greedy fraud and he uses his innocent looking face to bluff the people.
Great post!
I completely agree with you!
At first he was my Idol, I wanted to be him, but thanks to internet and fake media I started to open my 👀.
I can see, you have a strong opinion, but I agree with you. His innocent face is working for him.
I'm no great fan of Buffett. He's an hypocrite. He pays minimal taxes yet publicly proclaims the rich (read upper middle class) should pay their 'fair share'...guess what Warren? They already do. He rails against the performance fees that hedge funds charge not mentioning that the investment partnership he started in the 1950's charged a performance fee of 25% of all profits above a 6% hurdle. But this article just explains he had the foresight to invest in highly profitable businesses because of their monopoly like market conditions and to compound the profits. This is not a reason to dislike him, it is probably one of the few reasons to actually want to emulate him.
That art piece of Buffett though. It's weird that he goes around giving speeches about his success, when in actuality his success is built on identifying, supporting, and extracting rent from monopolies
money produce more money
What a crock. The man is an imposter, a four-flusher, BS, babble, baloney, bull*, bunk, drivel, empty talk, hogwash and a humbug. 😴😴😴😴
I think that too many people believe what they hear in the mainstream media. They listen to the lying politicians and they swallow a lot of nonsense from self-styled investment “experts.” Such as this crock.
But having a lot of money doesn’t make you great. Money isn’t the measure of a human. You can never be so rich that somebody can’t call you a jackass. And be dead right about it.
Buffett has a great track record. There’s no denying that. But he’s also a hypocrite. He believes successful business people should pay a lot more in taxes.
Just not him personally. Just like you mentioned in your post as someone “Waren Buffett” who believes that if you talk the talk you oughta walk the walk, I wish he’d shut his trap about higher taxes.
He is a successful fraud!
Well,the problem is the US government has been protecting corporations almost in the same sense as its own citizens...well ...since the mid 1850s
-"1853 (Marshall v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad): The Supreme Court later upheld the notion that corporations were citizens, but only for the purposes of court jurisdiction; they did not have the same constitutional rights as actual people."
(i can write an entire blog on this subject alone based on the way US Courts protect corporations & have in the past....very tough to explain in a blurb)
The Oligarchy we live in (the US) has proved time & time again that monetary gains of stakeholders of said corporation outweigh public safety,and the good of the general populace. (Ex: Valeant Pharmaceuticals ,Wells Fargo,DuPont,MyLan,Bank of America,Goldman Sachs just for starters)
Hence why i do believe & see...how scared the finance industry regarding is of crypto currency.
-Decentralized currency takes away the ability to monopolize a technology.
Takes away control.
I hope my kids (generation Z) see the playing field level out somehow one day,alas i see heavy regulation coming this markets way right before the 2020 general election.
So i doubt we see this system of Oligopoly change until these old vampires die out.
Sounds simplistic but once Buffet dies..as will this religious worship people have of his company & its holdings.
This was an excellent article with public information that's readily available....notice you'd never hear about this on any major network/news outlet.
And you never will.
Excellent post @Zer0hedge
In the course of Buffett's investment, purchase prices for IBM stocks averaged $ 167 to $ 197. The current stock price for IBM is around $ 153. By the time, IBM will tell you whether the investment is a mistake.
@Zer0hedge..bro All I have read here is that Buffett is a smart dude picking and choosing wisely and operating within the confines of government regulations for the most part. Not much different from Trump, Icahn, Andy Grove or even Gates. Or for that matter, Ace Greenberg, or even the Winklevoss lads in the If you start with a level playing field, some will end up with more than others. The problem is they can use the differential to make their advantage permanent to an extent that disparity keeps increasing (extracting rent in perpetuity). This continues till the system breaks down. Then the cycle starts again...thank you for sharing with us
thank you for this amazing post dea @zer0hedge hopefully the future will be better.
good post thanks for sharing...
well post.thanks for shareing.....
Hopefully tomorrow will be better
Nice post @zer0hedge
Wow...amazing post, thanks for sharing
Once you have "earned" your first million its way easier to get the " 2nd one"-- money makes money
It is worth noting that Warren Buffett has an exceptional sense of humor and love to irony himself. On the Internet you will find a huge variety of quotes of this interesting person. The most famous is: "I actually wear expensive suits, they just look cheap on me."
I think that you are not getting rich without entering dirty jobs. Every rich has a very dirty job.
Lovely post dear,am a newbie I upvoted you please check my post please I need your vote @julistar thanks dear and God bless you.
Buffet is one of the greatest investors America, nay the world, have ever produced. I always love to reads his investment's quotes and strategies. Here are some of them:
One particular one says, " the stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."
There is always a secret behind certain, wealth, power, influence and fame. Just be rich or famous and.........
I do actually wonder on how he does he stuff. He is a real definition of a successful person. I do try my level best to learn how he makes his stauff and follow his path. He is an example for the present generation full of ideas and inovation to solve this centuries issues.
We are living in an post modern era where by there is no university truth and we all have our own truth and we should strive to make them known to the world.
Warren has his own truth and wisdom and his great ideas are really wonderful to the community.
I believe that we the youth should take a step and move forward;. Learning to take risks and working smart towards greatness.
Monopolies are the most profitable structures of the market but they also create a loss of Social Welfare, that´s why the regulators always need to be alert to this situations...
Of course Warren Buffett see this profitable companies and decide to invest in them, but the question is, where are the regulators and why are the regulators of the US not preventing monopolies from existing?
Because, if Warren Buffett's Billions come from investing in this situations, then it means there are a lot of companies being a monopoly without proper regulation to protect the society.
The regulators are a major part of the problem...they are all in cahoots, hence the term 'cronies'.
Im glad for this calculation creature sprightly to right to use. Im determined Waren Buffet wouldnt be where he is if not for his corruption, steeling from innocent people, his manipulative techniques and his take group bearing in mind the processing. I think he is a selfish fraud and he uses his innocent looking perspective to bluff the people.
Great post!
Nice You are great photographer Boos...
Warren Bufee feasts off the corporate welfare mafia, and stomps on the vulnerable.
It´s sad after all but unfortunately the truth. The rich are often not on the top, because of the awesome businesses they´ve build but rather due to the shady activities they´ve got themselves into. Money is easy to make whenever one is willing to cross the borders of the law.
That´s as well the reason why most people will never make it to the top. They´re just too honest and most of all have to fear to be imprisoned whenever doing business like the big guys. Those on the other hand just got to pay some fines from time to time but will never have to sit down behind bars like the small people would have to.
The world isn´t balanced anymore and it´s just getting worse as the powerful and rich keep doing what they do behind the scenes to keep their herds under full control...