Warren Buffett says he would vote for Keystone XL pipeline

[proverbialwisdom]

Source: By Steve Jordon / World-Herald staff writer

PUBLISHED MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014 AT 8:27 AM / UPDATED AT 10:47 AM

Warren Buffett said Monday that he would vote to build the Keystone XL pipeline because it's a useful project and that a decline in U.S. stock market prices because of the political crisis in Ukraine would prompt him to invest, not sell.

Buffett spent three hours on CNBC's “Squawk Box” program, part of the time with top assistants. The session followed Saturday's posting of Buffett's annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the Omaha-based conglomerate he runs.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20140303/MONEY/140309627

[aquart]

1. It's a good thing I don't idolize that treasure-sucking parasite.

Or I would be so disappointed right now.

[truebrit71]

2. "treasure-sucking parasite'

Love it!!

[aquart]

5. It's important to reframe. "Makers" didn't do it for me.

[OKNancy]

4. Isn't he the one who is giving away 99% of his fortune?

not that I agree with him on Keystone, but if other rich people were more like him, society would be a lot better off.

[cprise]

8. "Society" = People Buffet thinks are deserving..?

I heard the Koch's are generous in their own way, also.

[tomg]

9. Yes and no.

Yes because the wealthy would share the wealth. No because it would be voluntary and thus a simple case of noblesse oblige. I don't want our taxation system based on how nice fabulously wealthy sociopaths decide to be on a given day.

No, I don't think W.B is a sociopath. far from It. He is closer to us and them. But the XL pipeline is a case where he and I are on very different sides. Why should his economic status give him a greater voice in the conversation of the republic than me?

[freshwest]

32. +1. Agree with all of the first paragraph, half the second. n/t

[tomg]

37. You are right as regards the second. nt

[aquart]

30. Giving it to whom for the purpose of doing what?

Fuck his "charity." Tax him and his buddies at 85% from all sources, gross not net, after the first billion. As he says himself, "If you can't live on $500 million..."

75% from all sources, gross not net, after that poverty line of $500 million.

[1000words]

7. Bravo!

Well said.

[adirondacker]

31. Are you trying to deny him his T Boone Pickens moment?

[wercal]

3. Very Interesting

Warren Buffet's company owns BNSF, and has made a lot of money hauling oil...the pipeline would take some of that business away.

My guess is that other railroads are benefitting more than his is, and he would rather shrink that market, to starve his competitors.

[proverbialwisdom]

14. Related.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/03/03/warren-buffett-is-still-bullish-on-rail-and-keystone/

3/03/2014 @ 12:17PM

Warren Buffett Is Still Bullish On Rail--And Keystone
by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
Forbes Staff

(3,385 views)

...Buffett should know. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, purchased Burlington Northern Santa Fe for $34 billion four years ago. FORBES estimates its value has doubled since then. Part of the reason: hauling oil out of the Bakken formation of North Dakota.

<>

Despite his stake in the railroad business, Buffett still expressed support for the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.

“I think probably the Keystone Pipeline is a good idea from the country,” he posited. As to if and when it would be completed, his answer was less definitive: “I have no idea.”

Buffett’s BNSF, along with rival Union Pacific and others, stand to profit either way. Even if plans for the pipeline go ahead, locomotives will be needed to lug out much of the raw material needed for its construction; Buffett says Keystone is “not that big a competitor.”

And as my colleagues Joann Muller, Chris Helman and I wrote in a lengthy magazine feature on the rail revolution earlier this year, the growth in oil shipments via rail is just one of the many favorable trends working for the industry right now.

<>

[jsr]

6. What's Good for Warren Buffett Is Good for America

[TBF]

10. A capitalist acting like

a capitalist? Gee, I'm shocked.

[Rafale]

11. I wonder....I say I wonder....

I wonder what Frank Underwood would do. Bah-hahahahaha!

[stuffmatters]

12. One Leg of Buffett's Repugnant Trifecta Today

Buffett announced today that he's pro XL Pipeline, anti raising the minimum wage and the threat of climate change in insignificant to his insurance companies. And that today's it's a good day to buy stock, because Ukraine.

[Earth_First]

13. Well $ure he would. There'$ lot$ of ca$h to be $addled off di$a$ter. nt

[marble falls]

16. In this case, fuck what Warren Buffett has to say about it.

[24601]

17. Is this the same Warren Buffett who said he wants higher taxes but still itemizes deductions instead

of electing that the standard deduction?

...and rather than paying higher taxes himself, he gets to pick and choose how his money is spent?

Just checking, because there might be other Warren Buffetts out there.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with donating to good causes. We donate (on a much smaller scale). And I have no reason to believe his donations go to bad ones. It's just the aspects that he wants OUR money to go the treasury while his goes to a higher calling. The issue comes down to whether donations should be pre-tax or post-tax. I believe that eliminating the donation deduction would reduce donations, but that's the trade off that needs to be debated.

[SoapBox]

18. They just can't help themselves, when it comes to the temptations of money.

Hey Warren...how about that giant sucking sound, as the planet is drained dry?

And...not to mention the pollution.

You lost a chunk of my respect on this.

[Omaha Steve]

19. His company already owns the northern Natural Gas pipeline

It also owns several energy companies in AND outside the USA.

[lunasun]

20. WTFC

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. What do the Koch brothers and Buffett have in common?

[sakabatou]

23. Ugh...

[blkmusclmachine]

24. Said like a true 1%'er.

[They_Live]

25. I vote that all those that favor the XL pipeline

should be sealed inside of the pipeline itself. That should consummate their love.

[defacto7]

26. Whiskey Bravo Niner Uniform Romeo Lima....

Angel down, Angel down, Angel down.

Roger and out.

[hatrack]

33. Who gives a shit?

He might live long enough to enjoy some of the theoretical profits.

He certainly will not live long enough to survey the damage and say "Gee, I must have been wrong!"

[DeSwiss]

34. Warren Buffet is a curmudgeonly cute little capitalist asshole. FU n/t

[daleo]

35. No mention of global warming here

[polynomial]

36. Buffet lost his edge

Understand my view is sort of Darwinian combined with natural laws in nature, simply God’s gift of life. This is a view taking place at where the one percenters either have the life force at their back, or are contrasted against the forces of nature. The XL pipeline is a force contrasted to nature.

Society lives along in parallel though completely embedded within these natural laws. We all sense the demand for goodness with clean longevity always promoted with the best public relations that big money can buy. However this pop culture generation, commercially driven with repeating Hollywood glitz glamour mantras terrorist are in the shadow all the while the high life is around the corner both beckoning at any moment. Abuse or incompetence is newsy now surrounded with metadata mystery.

One thing is for sure the oil, driving the reciprocating engine will not exist as the core vehicle forever, it does not seem logical to burn fuel adding oil’s constant pollution giving a dirty environment, adding to weather conversions with random convolutions. Rather than torque a motor by Tesla’s inexhaustible clean energy supply.

Society is approaching a pivotal point that is starting to beg for conversion. We either murder ourselves through war. Or mother-nature picks up the moment to diminish man all the while science watching with Newtonian Integrals Maxwelled examining in arguments endlessly no climate problems by Limbaugh and the right, but yes it’s true. Just as society says stop the war society knows we need a new motor. One that does not use oil. We need a new motor that is clean that will work in our bubble of life or in the vast space we are destine to explore.

Its not that I dislike success and people who have money. Lets face it some of them are the best but even they make mistakes. From my view this is something that is all political pals. Just as America’s Bush types subcontracted mercenaries at war we could subcontract talent to service and distill at the dig site that would take the risk of ending the probability of destroying the most precious natural resource America has, the water supply. It’s bad enough America is casual about bottle water all the while watching our water pipelines depreciate to the point we cannot drink the house sink water.

That’s why Buffet and the rest are wrong the XL Pipeline is a pivotal point