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by eiji 2163 days ago
Think of Musk and Tesla what you will, and I'm not the biggest fan of his, but good for him that he gets rewarded for his entrepreneurship. Unless Buffett gets his name on a hundred buildings through "donations", nobody will remember him in 30 years.
2 comments

Haha, what? Warren Buffett is probably the smartest investor of all time. He will be remembered forever. Sometimes we get wrapped up in what we personally know and think that everyone is like us. Just because you may not know much about him doesn’t mean the rest of the world doesn’t.
Buffett is going to be the prototype of a shrewd investor for generations. There's enough legend surrounding him that he won't be forgotten in such a short timespan.
He used to be the savior of last resort, but lately fed has eliminated the need for him to step in (or raised the floor above where buffet would make a move).
What does this mean?
Buffett has always had pretty conservative holdings with Berkshire and a top tier credit rating. So in 2008 when a lot of businesses needed liquidity he came in with it on very generous terms to him making billions. For instance he loaned Goldman 5 billion dollars to keep them afloat and in return got preferred shares that made him much more money. This was in return for the risk he took.

Now the government and Fed are offering almost unlimited liquidity to businesses so he can't do that. The problem with this is that the government is NOT getting Buffet like terms.

Buffett would often invest in distressed blue chip companies. The companies often gave him a very good deal in return for the halo of Buffett approval.

For the comment about the Fed, see eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan_put