Tag Archives: Warren Buffet

Why Is Warren Buffett Buying Gold Stocks?

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , ,

Who cares why Buffet bought Barrick shares?  It’s an infinitesimal percentage of Berkshire Hathaway’s market cap.  Even if Barrick triples from here, it will have no affect on the investment performance of Berkshire.

However, I believe it’s a good bet that Buffet has a lot of physical gold that he keeps in his own private storage facilities around the world.

Chris (Arcadia Economics) and I discuss the Buffet news as well as some other topics related to Buffet, gold and silver:

**************

In the latest issue of the Mining Stock Journal I discuss profit-taking in miners, use of options to leverage returns, the Auryn/Eastmain merger and a new idea. You can learn more about the Mining Stock Journal by following this link:   MSJ Subscription Info.

New subscriber comment:  “Hi Dave, this is a lot of value $20 per month – thanks!”

Wells Fargo Peddles Fraud

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , ,

I would have thought that after all of the fraudulent, illegal and unethical business activity for which Wells Fargo has endured, a situation placed in their lap by a concerned citizen would have received immediate attention. What’s most appalling about the story below is the haughty indifference with which this potentially criminal complaint was treated by Wells Fargo employees. While Wells has received some heavy wrist-slapping for getting caught with its pants down, its seems based on the bloated compensation awarded to the CEO and the fact that, based on the true accounting below, Wells doesn’t seem to mind continuing to operate with its pants and underwear draped like a pedophile around its ankles. Mike – aka Silver Farmer (@nhsilverfarm) – has written a stunning report of his attempt alert Wells Fargo of a potentially criminal fraud situation involving Wells Fargo checking accounts – one that may involve fraudulent bank accounts opened by Wells employees:

I’m Mike and up until now, I’ve remained behind the scenes as an audio editor and producer for some of the more popular liberty minded programs out there today. I want to share this story of fraud that centers on habitual offender, Wells Fargo. In life, I have only my credibility and am more than willing to provide the emails that confirm everything I am about to relay.

After nearly 15 years, my wife and family are leaving the house we built. The property taxes having tripled in that time. We are intentionally downsizing, and have a number of valuable items to sell. I started posting ads for these items on Craigslist just over a week ago. There were a handful of items over $300 in value and for every one posed, I got several offers to accept payment by check from out of state and then ship the items to a buyer. I might live in the sticks of rural New Hampshire, but I had heard of these scams, so I decided to play along with a few.

The first was pretty low brow. I had to check my spam folder fro an email from “PayPal” saying that $1000 would be released to me if I sent a Western Union Money Gram to a woman named Deborah in Oklahoma. She was, you see, the mover that was going to pickup my air conditioner. Before I tipped my hand that knew that this was a scam, I contacted the police in my town, the town where the money was to be sent and the FBI.

The next two scammers asked for my address to send a physical check to. This sounded more interesting. I figured, what the hell, I will give them my address, I’m moving and it is public record anyway. Both had similar stories. The check I was to receive was “accidentally” made out for more than my item for sale because the assistant made a mistake and added my price AND the cost of having the item shipped into one check.

So 3 and 4 days later, respectively, I had priority mail envelopes in my mailbox, each containing a check, printed on real check stock with watermarks and other security features, from businesses far away from the return address on the envelope. I did a quick internet search, and found the phone numbers of these very real businesses. One was an oral surgeon in Texas, the other an equipment company in New York. I called each of these companies and was informed that these were, in fact, counterfeit checks.

I played along with the scammers, telling them that I had deposited their checks. At this point, one dropped out from communication, so I was down to one. In the mean time, I contacted the FBI and the postal inspector, both of which referred me to an online complaint form, which I filled out and heard nothing back from.

I told the last remaining scammer on Monday that his check had cleared. He immediately emailed me with the account information of the “mover” so I could wire the excess funds there.

And what account did he send me? Why a Wells Fargo Business account.

I called Wells Fargo and they confirmed it was an active account. I then dropped the bomb. I told them the above story and…literally crickets. The woman on the phone expressed no interest at all that one of their accounts was being used to receive funds from check fraud. I got irritated and a bit rude, and told the Wells employee that I didn’t think that Wells Fargo needed any more black eyes, and if she would not take me seriously, I was going to the media. She then forwarded me to Tim in Minneapolis. After a long hold, I explained the story to Tim. I offered to send a picture of the check and all the emails (Which I am happy to provide to anyone on request). He was not interested and then after about 5 min, he disconnected, without warning. I tried for another half hour to get back to him or find anyone who wanted the information I had. Nobody at Wells Fargo cared. No word of a lie. No concern at all. They didn’t even want my phone number.

When W Bush helped ram thru the Patriot act, part of that was that positive ID MUST be established to open a bank account. If this is the case, the owner of this Wells Fargo account should be easy to find. So why are they not interested?

Is this just the latest Wells Fargo scheme to allow accounts to be opened without proper documentation to pad the employee bonuses? Is this account owned by a Wells Fargo employee that has a side hustle? Something else?

I am turning this over to the honest media so hopefully there can be some relief. These scammers were quick to spend $10 on priority mail (Which either is linked to something like Stamps.com OR they went into a post office, on camera). And the sheer number of attempts was astounding. On 3 items I listed for over $300 (A canoe, a table and an air conditioner) I got 13 fraudulent offers. All of this tells me that not only does this scam work, that they have no fear of being caught.

And as a final note, I am still stringing along that scammer. He will loose intrest in a day or so. Any suggestions on how I should break it to him? nhsilverfarm@gmail.com

Mike the Producer

Warren Buffet Is The Definition Of “Scumbag”

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , ,

“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” – Warren Buffet, NY Times 11/26/2006

The “aura” of Warren Buffet is nothing more than the epitome of Orwellian propaganda.  Nothing is but what is not.  What Buffet “is not” is a good-ole rags to riches boy who has fulfilled the American dream.   Warren Buffet is the quintessential mascot of American hypocrisy, criminality and political corruption.

“A country that is now aspiring to an ‘Ownership Society’ will not find happiness in – and I’ll use hyperbole here for emphasis – a ‘Sharecropper’s Society.’ But that’s precisely where our trade policies, supported by Republicans and Democrats alike, are taking us.”  – Warren Buffet, 2005

Of course, Warren Buffet is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the U.S. trade policies.  I haven’t seen him lift a finger toward implementing reform…

I remember in the mid-90’s when I was working on Wall Street and was “pro” anything that could generate a profitable trade, including Greenspan’s money printing.  But I always cast a weary, suspicious eye on Warren Buffet.   I had read an article back then which detailed the myth vs. reality about Warren Buffet.

For instance, remember the auro of his “everyday man, wrinkled “sack” suits?”  It turns out that his suits were carefully tailored in Italy to cultivate that look and cost thousands of dollars.  How about the myth that he lived with his wife in the same small brick house in Nebraska that he started out in with her?  Total fabrication.  As it turned out, that house had been empty for years – although still owned by him – and Buffet had been mistress-jumping for years.  He also owns expensive homes in lesser-known hideaway places for the ultra-wealthy like Sun Valley and Sante Fe and other places all over the world.

Anyone/Everyone remember his “special” relationship with CNBC’s Becky Quick?  It was so obvious he was sleeping with her that CNBC never tried to deny it by planting disinformation in the alternative media world.

Warren Buffet is the “poster child” for hypocrisy and corruption in this country.  Remember when he made his “derivatives are financial nuclear weapons of mass destruction”  comment? (LINK)  As it turns out, Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance subsidiaries were and are among the largest users and beneficiaries of derivatives in the world.

How about when Buffet made the assertion that the wealthy should pay more in taxes and then it turns out the Buffet himself was paying a lower tax rate than his secretary?

This list is endless.  It has been said that Buffet has a direct line to the Oval Office. I have no reason to dismiss this.  Buffet is the kind of guy who would steal money from a homeless man and use it to get a shoe shine.

It did not surprise me that someone like Dan Loeb had enough backbone to issue harsh criticism of Buffet and Buffet’s overt hypocrisy:

I love reading Warren Buffett’s letters and I love contrasting his words with his actions…I love how he criticizes hedge funds, yet he had the first hedge fund,” Mr. Loeb said. “He criticizes activists, he was the first activist. He criticizes financial services companies, yet he loves to invest in them. He thinks that we should all pay taxes, yet he avoids them himself.  – Business Insider LINK

Warren Buffet is emblematic of everything that is wrong with our system.  The real Buffet is a cold-blooded greedy son of a bitch who would probably sell his kids for a chance to make money on a business deal.  Speaking of kids, the myth circulating in the 1990’s was that Buffet was going to put his wealth in a charitable trust and not leave most of it to his kids when he died.  Anyone hear any updates about the fraudulent story?

It’s ironic that Warren Buffet’s father, Howard Buffet, was a wealthy businessman and Congressman who was an ardent advocate of the gold standard.  In fact, that dispels another myth:  Warren was not a rags to riches investor.  He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth making money the Graham-Dodd way – he’s an inside elitist who uses his well-oiled political control to scheme  legislation that let’s him squeeze every last penny out of this country and trade on inside information…