Dismissing Buffett Not Typically a Good Idea!

[Guest ValueCarl]

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett and banking analyst Meredith Whitney are "out of their league" when it comes to the municipal bonds market, according to Richard Larkin, senior vice president and director of credit analysis at investment bank Herbert J. Sims.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Buffett-Whitney-Out-of-Their-cnbc-899260663.html;_ylt=AlWJ3Xke1zmsRJxFZVWDI2W7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2OWtldXQ0BHBvcwMxMARzZWMDdG9wU3RvcmllcwRzbGsDYnVmZmV0dHdoaXRu?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=

[Guest Bronco]

Obnoxious statement for the sole intent of grabbing headlines.

 

[CFA Omaha]

WEB has been in the muni game longer than this guy has been alive...

[Guest ValueCarl]

Hell, if my memory correctly reflects California's "state of the state" debt conundrum, it was WEB who helped guide The Terminator into "restructuring" large swaths of its earlier state debt! I can see the two of them sitting in the NY negotiating room from my mind's eye not long after WEB was threatened with push ups if his Prop 13 recommendation persisted!  ;)   

[Zorrofan]

You have to laugh when you read something like this. Hmmm lets see, WEB is worth $40 billion and you are worth......like Bronco said, just an attempt to grab some headlines.

 

;D

 

cheers

Zorro

[henrysalt]

Good article and presentations:

 

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/02/more-facts-about-muniland/

[Guest ValueCarl]

Biased Cumberland filled with municipal bond hubris waving their magical wands say, "Thank you, Joe"? Hmm....I don't know Joe from Adam, but I do know what scares me, and I am having reminiscences of toxic time bombs, embedded with "lethal weapons of mass destruction." It is almost never how it is being presented by industry pundits with vested interests for making outlandish "commissions" from OPM. If there is anything different about this time, it remains the fact that bloated state governments who have rode the inflation train for ages burdening the citizens with new expensive whims, while anticipating that those obligations would be met by the growth and creation of new enterprises as well as their employees in the form of taxes subject to Ponzi Scheme Math, seems to be over for America. Ultimately, all of these obligations must be paid for on the back of its citizens, and you can't suck blood out of zombies or dead people walking.  imo    

 

“There are 89,526 governmental entities in the U.S. They have sold something like $2.9 trillion in municipal bonds, almost three-quarters of which were for principal amounts of $1 million or less. Most hardly ever trade. These securities are structured in an almost infinite number of ways — not too long ago, an analyst observed that municipal securities were too complicated for their own good — backed by every kind of revenue stream, and sometimes more than one. And you’re going to generalize about this market, its issuers, and their securities?”

 

Thank you, Joe. You said it well.