Warren Buffett -- "rip-off artist"?

CNBC just did a short interview with an author named Timothy P. Carney who has written a book titled, "The Big Ripoff". Apparently, the book discusses how some business people use campaign donations to insure huge profits for their businesses. He talked about the kind of cash and benefits the federal government funnels to Archer Daniel Midlands (25% of all the ethanol grants) and the sugar growing family in Florida which uses the feds to keep sugar prices about 3 to 4 times higher than they would be in a free market.

At the end of the piece, he noted that Warren Buffett is a huge supporter for high estate tax rates for good reason. It turns out that Warren's company, Berkshire Hathaway, has purchased some of its profitable acquisitions because estate tax bills forced the heirs to sell the family-owned businesses at a huge discount.

Of course, Warren may just love the estate tax because he is a big liberal. After all, he is a huge fan of the Clintons.

[Note, however, that his love for the Clintons may be due to his admiration for their open marriage. When Wall Street had a scandal recently because a partner in a big firm turned out to be a big financial supporter of a prostitution madam, one person interviewed on TV (didn't catch his name) said it was unlikely to make any difference to the firm. After all, he said, Warren Buffett is known to have kept a mistress rather openly for a long time without scandal affecting his business. Hmmm. Didn't know that. No wonder he's tight with Bill and Hillary.]