Author Topic: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman  (Read 8220 times)

Al-Gebra

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Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« on: August 09, 2006, 10:07:29 PM »
lovely article that i hope isn't too long for those spoiled by a steady diet of conspiracies. ;D

Warren Buffett. The most important thing you need to know about Israel today and how it has performed so far in the war with Hezbollah is Warren Buffett.

Say what? Well, the most talked-about story in Israel, before Hezbollah started this war, was the fact that on May 5, Mr. Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and the world's most successful investor, bought an 80 percent stake in the privately held Israeli precision tools company, Iscar Metalworking, for $4 billion -- Mr. Buffett's first purchase of a company outside America. According to BusinessWeek, as a result of the deal, Iscar's owners were "likely to pay about $1 billion in capital gains taxes into the Israeli government's coffers -- an unexpected windfall. With the Israeli budget already running a $2 billion surplus, the government is considering slashing value-added tax by one percentage point to 15 percent."

In May, Israeli papers were filled with pages about how cool it was that Israel had produced a cutting-edge company that Warren Buffett wanted to buy. It was being discussed everywhere, pushing the Tel Aviv stock exchange to an all-time high.

That is where Israel's head was on the eve of this war -- and it explains something I sensed when I visited Israel shortly after the fighting started. Nobody wanted this war, and nobody was prepared for it. Look closely at pictures of Israeli soldiers from Lebanon. There is no enthusiasm in their faces, and certainly no triumphalism. Their expressions tell the whole story: "I just don't want to be doing this -- another war with the Arabs."

Israeli soldiers were napping when this war started -- that's why they got ambushed -- for the very best reasons: They have so much more to do with their lives, and they live in a society that empowers and enables them to do it. (Unfortunately, the Buffett company is in northern Israel and had to be temporarily closed because of rocket attacks.)

Young Israelis dream of being inventors, and their role models are the Israeli innovators who made it to the Nasdaq. Hezbollah youth dream of being martyrs, and their role models are Islamic militants who made it to the Next World. Israel spent the last six years preparing for Warren Buffett, while Hezbollah spent the last six years preparing for this war.

"Israel was not prepared for this war," said the Israeli political theorist Yaron Ezrahi. "It came upon us like the crash of a meteorite. The whole focus of debate in the country before this war was on withdrawal." The Israeli Army had just taken on its own extremists, the settlers in Gaza, and removed them against their will, added Mr. Ezrahi, "and the country had just elected for the first time a prime minister who promised voters to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank in return for nothing."

In the end, Israel will do whatever it has to do to prevail. But what is so troubling for Israelis is that this war is about nothing and everything. That is, Israel got out of Lebanon, and yet Hezbollah keeps coming. It is all about Hezbollah's need to justify its existence and Iran's need for a distraction.

What is doubly sad is that Lebanon was getting its act together. Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister, represented a whole new type of Arab leader -- one who rose to power by being a builder and an entrepreneur. He understood that Lebanon, freed of Syria, was a country whose youth had the energy and skill to compete anywhere. He thought Lebanon could again be a model of how Arabs can embrace modernity. But Mr. Hariri was murdered, allegedly by Syria, and now Lebanon's democracy is being murdered by Hezbollah. Once again, in the Arab world, the past buries the future.

Israel mustn't get sucked into that same grave. Israel needs to get a cease-fire and an international force into south Lebanon -- and get out. Israel can't defeat Hezbollah, it can only hurt it enough to make it think twice about ever doing this again -- and it has pretty much done that. It must not destroy any more of Lebanon, which is going to still be its neighbor when the guns fall silent.

Israel wins when Warren Buffett's company there is fully back in business -- not when Nasrallah is out of business. Because that will only happen, not by war, but when Arabs wake up and realize that he is just another fraud, just another Nasser, whose strategy would condemn the flower of Arab youth -- who deserve and need so much better -- to another decade of making potato chips, not microchips. Nasrallah can win in the long run only if he can condemn the flower of Israel's youth to the same fate. Don't let it happen, Israel.
Maureen Dowd is on leave.
Edition:  Late Edition - Final
Section:  Editorial Desk
Page:  17
ICopyright (c) 2006 The New York Times Company

Al-Gebra

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2006, 10:46:26 PM »
bump . . . motherfuckers . . . this article cost me money, and you get it for free.

Hugo Chavez

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2006, 10:48:18 PM »
 ::)

24KT

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2006, 10:48:24 PM »
Good Post. The fighting needs to stop NOW!

btw - speaking of Warren Buffett. Did you know he's been quiety buying up network marketing companies?

When asked why, he responded with "It was the best money I ever spent".   8)
w

Al-Gebra

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2006, 10:50:11 PM »

btw - speaking of Warren Buffett. Did you know he's been quiety buying up network marketing companies?

When asked why, he responded with "It was the best money I ever spent".   8)

yeah . . . we're going to need a source for that quote.

24KT

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2006, 11:14:57 PM »
Warren Buffett    8)
w

Al-Gebra

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2006, 11:17:10 PM »
Warren Buffett    8)

 . . . you just pulled that "quote" out your ass, didn't you?

Al-Gebra

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2006, 11:19:40 PM »
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/subs/sublinks.html

where's the network marketing companies?

Al-Gebra

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2006, 11:22:59 PM »

Mr. Intenseone

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2006, 11:24:32 PM »
Good Post. The fighting needs to stop NOW!



Yeah, lets stop fighting so the people who want to kill us no matter what can go ahead and do so ::).....hey, I know, maybe the Libs will negotiate with Binladen and come to an agreement and TOTALLY forget what happend on 9/11....sound like a plan?? ::)

24KT

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #10 on: August 10, 2006, 12:13:10 AM »
pampered chef?

Yes Pampered Chef is the latest one of them, ...but he purchased another one before Pampered Chef.
I don't see it in the list, but I believe it was a Japanese company. I fully expect him to acquire more of them too.

When asked why he would purchase not only one, ...but then another network mtkg company,
his response was "Because it was the best money I ever spent"

You have to remember Warren Buffet first started off with pinball machines, and continued to pour his profits into other passive income producing assets. It was only a matter of time before he discovered network marketing.  8)
w

Al-Gebra

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #11 on: August 11, 2006, 09:08:58 PM »
Yes Pampered Chef is the latest one of them, ...but he purchased another one before Pampered Chef.
I don't see it in the list, but I believe it was a Japanese company. I fully expect him to acquire more of them too.

When asked why he would purchase not only one, ...but then another network mtkg company,
his response was "Because it was the best money I ever spent"

You have to remember Warren Buffet first started off with pinball machines, and continued to pour his profits into other passive income producing assets. It was only a matter of time before he discovered network marketing.  8)

don't know what possessed him to buy pampered chef, but he did.

as for the rest, i think you just made it all up . . .

24KT

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #12 on: August 12, 2006, 11:31:04 PM »
 ::)

Typical Man, ...just can't accept knowledge comin' from a woman. And you wonder why we laugh at you?
w

JOHN MATRIX

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #13 on: August 13, 2006, 12:05:46 AM »
i dont know what this thread is about, but warren buffet is a peice of shit, anyone with that much money should be doing outrageous cool stuff with it that you should read about in the newspaper every day, him and bill gates are so boring, they can do/build/create ANYTHING and they just sit there and do fuck all with their money, UNLIMITED opportuties and they still work, and dont do anything fun, fucking wastes.

Al-Gebra

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #14 on: August 13, 2006, 08:30:21 AM »
And you wonder why we laugh at you?

why are you trying to hurt my feelings? :-[

Deedee

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #15 on: August 13, 2006, 08:51:16 AM »
i dont know what this thread is about, but warren buffet is a peice of shit, anyone with that much money should be doing outrageous cool stuff with it that you should read about in the newspaper every day, him and bill gates are so boring, they can do/build/create ANYTHING and they just sit there and do f**k all with their money, UNLIMITED opportuties and they still work, and dont do anything fun, fucking wastes.

It's that pendantic, one-minded focus on diligence, and their obsessive work ethic, that got them filty rich in the first place. You can't change the mind of a squid, as they say.

Deedee

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #16 on: August 13, 2006, 08:52:07 AM »
why are you trying to hurt my feelings? :-[

You delicate hothouse flower, you.

Al-Gebra

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #17 on: August 13, 2006, 09:02:29 AM »
You delicate hothouse flower, you.

I hope you weren't chuckling as you typed this . . . :(

Deedee

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Re: Warren buffett and hezbollah-- by thomas friedman
« Reply #18 on: August 13, 2006, 09:04:06 AM »
I hope you weren't chuckling as you typed this . . . :(

lol, oh yes.  :)