Last Updated: 3:44 AM, April 6, 2011
Posted: 12:05 AM, April 6, 2011
America appears to be turning against Warren Buffett's ducky public image as the honest oracle of high finance.
A startling 72 percent of commenters on one cable network's Web site slammed the 80-year-old investor with a torrent of negative remarks yesterday, ranging from "hypocrite" to being a "cheat caught in insider trading."
It was Buffett's latest embarrassment after David Sokol, who was seen as a possible heir apparent to run Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire-Hathaway, quit last week. The resignation came after Sokol was involved in questionable insider buying of stock in Lubrizol just ahead of Buffett's acquiring it.
Regulators are said to be reviewing the deal.
A second Berkshire executive, Vice Chairman Charles Munger, 87, also disclosed yesterday he was invested "for years" as an insider in a Chinese car company ahead of Buffett's buying it, and even pushed for the deal.
The Bronx cheers came after hedge-fund pioneer Michael Steinhardt bashed Buffett on national TV as a stingy self-promoter.
"He is the greatest PR person of recent times and he has managed to achieve a snow job that conned virtually everyone in the press, to my knowledge," Steinhardt told CNBC. "And it is remarkable that he continues to do it."
Regarding Buffett's plan to give away his $47 billion fortune to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' charitable foundation, Steinhardt said Buffett has been stingy most of his life.
"He gave away 2½ cents for the first 70 some odd years of his life. He gave away nothing, then in one fell swoop he gave almost all of his money thoughtlessly to one guy [Gates]," Steinhardt opined.
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