Obama Thanks Buffett, Again

Warren “Tax Me, Bro” Buffett got a big gift from Barack Obama and the Department of Justice last week. Crony socialist Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the government had reached a settlement with five major U.S. banks in regard to foreclosure abuse. The settlement: $25 billion. Buffett’s profit: $154 million. Since it’s growth in the value of his bank shares, it won’t be taxed as ordinary income, and his secretary will continue to pay at a higher rate.

Now if you happen to have a few billion dollars lying around unused, and want to make a big profit with the help of the President, here’s how the Sagebrush of Omaha did it. Back in 2011, Buffett invested $5 billion in Bank of America. He knew that it would eventually be a solid investment, since BofA was too big to fail and did very well with government bailouts. As part of his purchase, he also got warrants to buy 700 million shares at the depressed price of $7.14 per share.

A few months later, amid bonus and mortgage abuse scandals at BofA, those shares had dropped to $4.94. But never fear, the government is here. Not known for panicking at a mere downtick, Buffett held onto his shares and increased the number at the even-lower price. On Thursday, the DOJ announced the settlement, and BofA shares promptly rose to $8.13 per share. By Friday afternoon, the shares had risen to $8.35 per share.

Now I’m absolutely sure that this and other Buffett windfalls as a result of administration action are purely coincidental (sarcasm intentional). Just prior to this gift, Barack Obama announced that despite Congress’s urging, he would not allow the State Department to approve the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas. No direct largess there either. But nevertheless, by eliminating the pipeline, the Canadian oil has to be transported to the refineries in Texas somehow.

That would be railroads, folks. And the biggest beneficiary is Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, which is owned by, you guessed it, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. At the time the pipeline was nixed, Kirata York-Wooley of Burlington Northern said simply: “If Keystone XL doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul.” I’ll bet they are.

Buffett’s “billionaires should be taxed at a much higher rate” statement is much beloved or much hated, depending on your political/economic stance. But this is the same man who also said: “Through the tax code, there has been class warfare waged, and my class has won.” This was before his love affair with Barack Obama, and he wasn’t saying it apologetically.

Given his ties to this corrupt administration, there is plenty of reason to believe that he may have what is called an informational advantage for investments in the not-so-free market. Proving that he is trading on insider information is of course an entirely different matter. It’s good to have knowledgeable friends in Congress, and even better to have them close to the White House.

That’s twice in a very short period of time that Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway have greatly benefited by administration action, the details of which the average investor couldn’t know in advance. Coincidence is not concurrence, but I’m still getting a faint odor of rat. Perhaps Buffett will donate a few billion dollars of these two big gains to the public treasury while giving his secretary a raise. The increase in value of Buffett’s shares in BofA and Burlington Northern is what our socialist friends call “windfall profits.” When they’re gained this way, I have another name for them—“convenient luck.”