Howard Buffett

[Tortoise]

Have any of you heard of Howard Buffett, Warren Buffett's father?

Sounds like the guy was the Ron Paul of his generation. Strange how his son Warren ended up with such vastly different political views from his own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Buffett

[MediumTex]

Just what I've read in Buffett biographies.

I think that FDR probably created a lot of those types of conservatives.

[stone]

Those  quotes in the wikipeadia page make a lot of sense to me. It is curious how that way of thinking is viewed as being very right wing ie in the same direction as Mitt Romney but further out from "the centre".

'Unshakably ethical, Howard refused offers of junkets and even turned down a part of his pay. During his first term, when congressional salary was raised from $10,000 to $12,500, Howard left the extra money in the Capitol disbursement office, insisting that he had been elected at the lower salary.' His wife said he considered only one issue when deciding whether or not to vote for a bill: 'Will this add to, or subtract from, human liberty?'[3

Even if it were desirable, America is not strong enough to police the world by military force. If that attempt is made, the blessings of liberty will be replaced by coercion and tyranny at home. Our Christian ideals cannot be exported to other lands by dollars and guns. Persuasion and example are the methods taught by the Carpenter of Nazareth, and if we believe in Christianity we should try to advance our ideals by his methods. We cannot practice might and force abroad and retain freedom at home. We cannot talk world cooperation and practice power politics

When the American government conscripts a boy to go 10,000 miles to the jungles of Asia without a declaration of war by Congress (as required by the Constitution) what freedom is safe at home? Surely, profits of U.S. Steel or your private property are not more sacred than a young man's right to life.[5] ”?

[stone]

Have any of you heard of Howard Buffett, Warren Buffett's father?

Sounds like the guy was the Ron Paul of his generation. Strange how his son Warren ended up with such vastly different political views from his own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Buffett

I don't know much about Warren Buffett's politics appart from him advocating higher taxes for billionaires. If Howard Buffett had been asked about what rate of tax someone in Warren Buffett's position should be paying, what do you think his view would have been? My impression was that in the 1940s there was a very broad consensus against facilitating the sort of gathering of money with money that our current system favours.

[stone]

This is Howard Buffett advocating  a gold standard for the USD:
http://www.goldmoney.com/documents/Howa ... _money.pdf

[Tortoise]

Interesting article, stone. By contrast, Howard's son Warren wrote an article in Fortune explaining why he thinks it is silly to own gold.

Here is something that the famous Austro-libertarian economist Murray Rothbard wrote about Howard Buffett:

I came to know Buffett as a genuine and thoughtful libertarian. Attacking the Truman Doctrine on the floor of Congress, he declared: "Even if it were desirable, America is not strong enough to police the world by military force. If that attempt is made, the blessings of liberty will be replaced by coercion and tyranny at home. Our Christian ideals cannot be exported to other lands by dollars and guns."

When the Korean War came, almost the entire old left, with the exception of the Communist Party, surrendered to the global mystique of the United Nations and "collective security against aggression," and backed Truman's imperialist aggression in that war. Even Corliss Lamont backed the American stand in Korea. Only the extreme rightist Republicans continued to battle U.S. imperialism. It was the last great political outburst of the old right of my youth.

Howard Buffett was convinced that the United States was largely responsible for the eruption of conflict in Korea; for the rest of his life he tried unsuccessfully to get the Senate Armed Services Committee to declassify the testimony of CIA head Admiral Hillenkoeter, which Buffett told me established American responsibility for the Korean outbreak.

Source: "Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal" by Murray Rothbard, 1968

Howard's son Warren may not have the complete opposite political and economic views from his father's, but they are strikingly different. For example, Warren wrote a 2010 op-ed in the NY Times praising the U.S. federal government for the 2008 bailouts:

In the darkest of days, Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner and Sheila Bair grasped the gravity of the situation and acted with courage and dispatch. And though I never voted for George W. Bush, I give him great credit for leading, even as Congress postured and squabbled.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/opini ... ef=opinion

[Reub]

As Warren advocates higher taxes on the "rich",  the vast majority of his enormous wealth is invested in Berkshire Hathaway, on which he has billions in unrealized gains that are not taxed at all.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreill ... s-are-low/

[stone]

Reub, I totally agree that unrealized capital gains are the way that Warren Buffett was immune from taxation and became so wealthy. To my mind if he really wanted to suggest something that would have prevented his "predicament" he would be advocating a tax on asset values.

Tortoise, I agree that Warren Buffett's enthusiasm for the 2008 bailouts is at odds with much that Howard Buffett stood for. It was conjuring up "funny money" to resurect insolvent corporations that the government had bestowed with "must not fail" status.