LÁ THƯ TỶ PHÚ WARREN BUFFETT GỬI CHÚ SAM CÁCH ĐÂY ĐÃ LÂU
Hãy ngẫm lại những ngày tháng đen tối đã gần 6 năm trước. Trong một
động thái khá hài hước, tỷ phú Warren Buffett đã đăng một thư gửi Chú Sam trên
báo New York Times, và nhiều quỹ đầu tư, cách đây đã lâu không ai còn nhớ, tỷ
phú Warren Buffett cũng đã gửi bức thư này cho ngân hàng đầu tư tại Mỹ trong đó
có cả ngân hàng đầu tư Morgan Stanley, mà tôi có lưu lại, bức thư với sự chế giễu
bộ sậu Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner và Sheila Bair dưới thời chính
quyền George W. Bush diều hâu như sau, xin trích nguyên văn bằng tiếng Anh cho
độc giả ở VN.
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Pretty Good for Government Work
DEAR Uncle Sam,
My mother told me to send thank-you notes promptly. I’ve been
remiss.
Let me remind you why I’m writing. Just over two years ago, in
September 2008, our country faced an economic meltdown. Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, the pillars that supported our mortgage system, had been forced into
conservatorship. Several of our largest commercial banks were teetering. One of
Wall Street’s giant investment banks had gone bankrupt, and the remaining three
were poised to follow. A.I.G., the world’s most famous insurer, was at death’s
door.
Many of our largest industrial companies, dependent on commercial
paper financing that had disappeared, were weeks away from exhausting their
cash resources. Indeed, all of corporate America’s dominoes were lined up,
ready to topple at lightning speed. My own company, Berkshire Hathaway, might
have been the last to fall, but that distinction provided little solace.
Nor was it just business that was in peril: 300 million Americans
were in the domino line as well. Just days before, the jobs, income, 401(k)’s
and money-market funds of these citizens had seemed secure. Then, virtually
overnight, everything began to turn into pumpkins and mice. There was no hiding
place. A destructive economic force unlike any seen for generations had been
unleashed.
Only one counterforce was available, and that was you, Uncle Sam.
Yes, you are often clumsy, even inept. But when businesses and people worldwide
race to get liquid, you are the only party with the resources to take the other
side of the transaction. And when our citizens are losing trust by the hour in
institutions they once revered, only you can restore calm.
When the crisis struck, I felt you would understand the role you
had to play. But you’ve never been known for speed, and in a meltdown minutes
matter. I worried whether the barrage of shattering surprises would disorient
you. You would have to improvise solutions on the run, stretch legal boundaries
and avoid slowdowns, like Congressional hearings and studies. You would also
need to get turf-conscious departments to work together in mounting your
counterattack. The challenge was huge, and many people thought you were not up
to it.
Well, Uncle Sam, you delivered. People will second-guess your
specific decisions; you can always count on that. But just as there is a fog of
war, there is a fog of panic — and, overall, your actions were remarkably
effective.
I don’t know precisely how you orchestrated these. But I did have
a pretty good seat as events unfolded, and I would like to commend a few of
your troops. 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.
You have been criticized, Uncle Sam, for some of the earlier
decisions that got us in this mess — most prominently, for not battling the rot
building up in the housing market. But then few of your critics saw matters
clearly either. In truth, almost all of the country became possessed by the
idea that home prices could never fall significantly.
That was a mass delusion, reinforced by rapidly rising prices that
discredited the few skeptics who warned of trouble. Delusions, whether about
tulips or Internet stocks, produce bubbles. And when bubbles pop, they can
generate waves of trouble that hit shores far from their origin. This bubble
was a doozy and its pop was felt around the world.
So, again, Uncle Sam, thanks to you and your aides. Often you are
wasteful, and sometimes you are bullying. On occasion, you are downright
maddening. But in this extraordinary emergency, you came through — and the
world would look far different now if you had not.
Your grateful nephew,
Warren
Warren E. Buffett is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a
diversified holding company.
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Trong hết quý thứ 3 vừa rồi, những cổ phiếu mà Warren E. Buffett
kiếm lời bộn tiền có lẽ tính luôn cho cả năm 2015, vì các nhóm cổ phiếu khác của
Warren E. Buffett đầu tư không mấy khả quan, danh sách những cổ phiếu có lời
nhiều nhất cho tỷ phú Warren E. Buffett, nó bao gồm:
Walmart, Procter & Gamble (có tỷ suất cổ tức 3,6%), US Bancorp
(có tỷ suất cổ tức 2,4%), Phillips 66 (có lợi suất cổ tức 2,5%), Wells Fargo (tỷ
suất cổ tức các dịch vụ tài chính của công ty là 2,7%), Kraft Heinz (lợi suất cổ
tức cổ tức 55,7%, và 3,1%), Coca-Cola, IBM (có tỷ suất cổ tức 3,9%), General
Motors (có một suất cổ tức hấp dẫn 4.1%), AT & T (lợi suất cổ tức 5,8%),...
Giá mỗi cổ phiếu của ngân hàng Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) đang ở đà
giảm ở mức 55,10 USD. Tổ hợp ngân hàng có vốn hóa lớn nhất nước Mỹ là Wells
Fargo của tỷ phú Warren Buffett sở hữu nhiều cổ phần, hiện nay Wells Fargo xếp
thứ 3 về kiểm soát tổng tài sản của toàn hệ thống ngân hàng Mỹ, chỉ kiểm soát
10% tổng tài sản trong hệ thống ngân hàng Mỹ, xếp sau tổ hợp ngân hàng JPMorgan
Chase (NYSE, Dow Jones: JPM), Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC), Wells Fargo kiểm
soát tài sản toàn hệ thống ngân hàng Mỹ giảm 1,1% trong quý 2, hiện Wells Fargo
kiểm soát khoảng 1,58 ngàn tỷ USD. Trong năm 2014, Wells Fargo kiểm soát đến
1,7 ngàn tỷ USD, và cho vay ra 863 tỷ USD, nhận tiền ký thác, tức tiền gửi là
1,2 ngàn tỷ USD.
Phương Thơ, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS)
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