Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Peter Schweizer's new book, "Throw Them All Out" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 211 pages, $26) mostly goes after members of Congress for profiting from inside information and making investments that are legal for them but would be illegal for almost anyone else.
But Chapter 6 is titled, "Warren Buffett: Baptist and Bootlegger."
Buffett is neither an actual Baptist nor a bootlegger, of course. Schweizer's reference is to the alliance of churchgoers and illegal marketers of liquor who both favored laws to limit the legal sale of alcohol, although for different reasons.
Schweizer wrote that during the 2008-09 financial crisis, Buffett pushed for government action and called attention to the problems, looking like a noble Baptist, but profited from the bailouts, like a bootlegger, through investments in Goldman Sachs, General Electric, Wells Fargo and other financial companies.
"Buffett needed the bailout," Schweizer wrote. "He began immediately to campaign for the $700 billion TARP rescue plan that was being hammered together in Washington." Several senators, including Ben Nelson, D-Neb., are Berkshire shareholders, Schweizer wrote, "and they had to know that passing the bailout bill would bring big returns for their Berkshire stock."
"There were many legitimate reasons to support the bill, and it can hardly be said that Buffett's support was the deciding factor," Schweizer wrote. "But his Baptist-bootlegger position was noteworthy for its strength in both directions: a lot of people followed his advice, and he and they made a lot of money by pushing for the bailout. .
"Warren Buffett is a financial genius. But even more important for his portfolio, he's a political genius."
CBS to profile Howard Buffett
CBS's "60 Minutes" plans to air a profile of Howard G. Buffett sometime in the next several weeks.
The newsmagazine's interest stems from Buffett's designation as the next chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the Omaha investment company headed by his father, Warren, and from his philanthropic work, aimed mostly at improving agriculture in developing countries.
The segment will feature correspondent Leslie Stahl.
"Howie" has been a member of Berkshire's board of directors since 1993 and since about 2006 has been tagged to succeed his father as chairman, although not as chief executive officer. His main job as chairman, besides overseeing the board's hiring and supervision of the next CEO, would be to help the Berkshire directors maintain the corporation's "culture."
Last year, Howard Buffett's foundation, funded with Berkshire stock from his parents, spent $82 million, mostly on programs to improve food production in Africa and Third World countries elsewhere.
Over several years, he has won credibility in agricultural circles for advocating and supporting efforts to encourage not only crop production in those regions but also successful marketing of farm products. He was the keynote speaker in last year's World Food Prize conference in Des Moines, calling for efforts to improve agriculture within poor countries instead of relying only on food handouts to hungry people.
The TV program likely will include footage from some of Buffett's frequent travels to disadvantaged parts of the world. He also is a resident of South Africa and has experimental farming operations there, and operates a farm near his home in Decatur, Ill.
NetJets subsidiaries sue over 'ticket tax'
Subsidiaries of Berkshire's NetJets Inc. are suing the federal government, seeking the return of $642.7 million it had to pay to the Internal Revenue Service for the federal "ticket tax" on flights.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in NetJets' home town of Columbus, Ohio, contends that Congress intended to apply the tax to passengers on commercial or charter aircraft owned by others, not on owners of private aircraft. NetJets sells partial ownership of its aircraft, so the people who fly on them are owners, not ticket-buying passengers.
The lawsuit, filed by NetJets subsidiary Executive Jet Management and other subsidiaries, said the IRS didn't provide any advance notice that they would owe the tax or any guidance about the fees they should collect. Nor did the IRS treat competing aircraft companies the same on collecting the tax, the lawsuit said.
An IRS spokesman told Bloomberg News that the agency doesn't discuss pending litigation.
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402-444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com
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