Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Breakfast Buffet(t)

In last night's democratic debate, Obama invoked the name of his and Hillary's "close friend," Warren Buffett. I, too, am tight with the Buff and thought I would personally introduce you to him.

Meet Warren Buffett. Warren says, "Hello, Too Much Teeth."
Warren, why don't you tell our readers a little bit about yourself? Warren says he would rather I tell you about him because he has to go to go get a smoothie before work.

Born and raised in Omaha, little Warren Buffett was savvy from birth. The son of Howard, a stock broker and US Representative, and Leila, Warren was a bookworm, a musician, and a pinball wizard. He began working at his father's brokerage firm at age 11; that year he purchased his
first stock. At 14, he began installing pinball machines and would shortly after start his own pinball machine company, Wilson Coin Op.

Jump to the future... the "Sage of Omaha" or the "Oracle of Omaha", as Buffett has been nicknamed, has "amassed an enormous fortune from astute investments managed through the holding company Berkshire Hathaway, of which he is the largest shareholder and CEO." His current net worth is an estimated $55.4 billion, making him, according to Forbes, the second-richest person in the
world (just behind wily Billy Gates).

Despite his enormous wealth, Warren is frugal. His 2006 salary was only $100,000 (pittance compared to other CEOs) and he continues to live in the same Omaha house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. But the best things about Mr. Buffett, as far as TMT is concerned, is that he is a real philanthropist and giver of things.

"In 2006, he announced a plan to give away his fortune to charity, with 83% of it going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The donation will amount to approximately $30 billion, at the time of the announcement enough to more than double the size of the foundation."

TMT is proud to have him as a buddy and so should America. In a time when the government seems constipated and corrupt, we are relying on the uber-rich and uber-smart to get things done. So long as they share our political beliefs and can hang.

*Buffet was also in the news lately b/c he challenged any of the Fortune 500 CEO's to a tax off. He found that he paid a smaller tax percentage than his secretary, and so he said he would pay $1 M to any CEO who could prove that he/she doesn't do the same. No one has taken him up on it. What a pimp, right?

2 comments:

  1. Buffett owns the Buffalo News, and came to the employee picnic one year. He was signing DOLLAR BILLS. And my parents made me take a picture with him HOLDING A DOLLAR BILL. My young socialist soul cried out.

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