berkshire hathaway and "fortune" magazine. we'll be right back after this.rs and applause) úáé!é!é!é!&íki÷z÷z (cheers and applause). >> jon: that's our show, join us tomorrow night at 11:00. neil young will be joining us. here it is, your moment of zen. >> well, i don't know what i'm going to do if i can't stick a straw in a twinge key an captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

berkshire hathaway buys back at $131 a share, that's a buyback.atest company to move up its dividend payment, pay out on new year's eve instead of next year because of the big tax increase that could be coming next year. says the move is in the best interest of its shareholders. it sure is. we are back in 90 seconds with the gas buddy. gas prices falling steadily, under 3 bucks a gallon in some places. to generate income? th fidelity's neoptions platform, we've completely integrated every step of the process, making it sier to try filters and strategies... to get a list of equity option.. evaluate them with our p&l calculator... and execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. i'm greg stevens and i helped create fidelity's options platform. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretend

warren buffett's berkshire hathaway's buying back stock why?taxes increases, warren was rooting for, and an estate tax he himself will not pay. are you getting tired of this? "varney & company" is about to begin. from the best players in history to the number 1 club in the world. the potential of manchester united unlocked. nyse euronext. unlocking the world's potential. >> ♪ ♪ >> you've got to say he's still the greatest, isn't he? eric clapton performing at the 12-12-12 concert to benefit the victims of hurricane sandy. the event went on five hours and a ton of money. 36 million alone in ticket sales and does not count the donations or the money they got from sponsored like samsung which surely paid a big price to have the galaxy phones featured everywhere and the celebrities answering the calls from people who phoned in donations, galaxy phones they were using. you're seeing galaxy ads everywhere, they dominate football games on sundays as well. apple, the ipad, ipad mini, the iphone their ads have been swamped by samsung and microsoft. is a

. >> susie: you're also recommending berkshire hathaway, the baby b shares, up 18% this year.hey've been stuck around the $90 level over the last couple of months. so what gives here. >> we have a $123 attacker 12-18 months out. stock trades at two times book. they just bought back stock from the state. again,t goes back a hsing and consumer spending cycle. we think the portfolio dowsms well and if the equity markets do well, we'll get a kicker to the book value there as well guys have aig is your next one. it was in the news. the governor patric gft is selling its sharre finally in a.i.g. the stock is around 35. is there any upside for investors? >> we think the stock is trading at 50% of book. the government, awns, sold their position. ben mochet came in from metlife, and he's reall?á changing the lture there. we think there a gat upside to the it. >> susie: royal dutch shell, tell us why you like this. i know it has a big, fat dividend, and you do like dividend stocks. dividend, and you do likdividene to? >> it's a dividend play, and the energy sector did poorly last year.

company involved in a different kind of insurance, among other businesses, is warren buffett's berkshire hathaway. the firm increased it's stock buyback program. the berkshire board okayed a $1.2 billion buyback. these specific shares come from the estate of what the company called a longtime shareholder. the company said it was willing to pay 20% over book value to buy back its stock. that's twice the limit it previously set. that increase helped push both the "a" and "b" shares of berkshire higher. the high-priced "a" closed at $134,000; the "b" shares finished at $89.32. both were up 2.4% to their highest price since october. global construction and mining equipment maker joy global struck profit growth in the latest quarter even as the company expects big equipment spending to fall next year. the company earned 2.5 cents per share, well above last year and estimates. the company's buyout of le- tourneau helped improve its bottom line. joy global's muted outlook for next year didn't hurt its shares; they were up 4%. fellow big equipment maker caterpillar gained 0.7%. four of the five most acti

. >> tom: luk, often called a mini berkshire hathaway, beef packing, commercial mortgage, copper, energy, even wine. what makes you like this one? is there a conglomerate discount? is the stock price held down because it's so diversified? >> it's one of the reasons i think it's attractive is they have all these different assets, and the guys who have run it since the late 70s have john efforted up to 20% return a year. they have put their brain power to work, they make really smart investments, they actually own the air space over union station here in washington d.c. that they'll put to use somehow, some way. so investors who buy behind lukadia, luk, you have to put some faith into the investors, these guys who run it will put the cast to work in smart ways and history is on its side here. >> tom: you're buying the investment team as much as those individual companies. do you own any yourself in these two companies, andy? >> i do not own core labs or lukadia. >> tom: andy cross with the motley fool. >> susie: wall street wisdom says if santa claus comes to broadway and wall in the last

john: said he enlarges berkshire hathaway? >> a phenomenal investor. he should be investing. he is creating real wealth and get congratulations for a job well done. >> instead they launched a giving the list. give when you die i will work -- they have signed up petition to give away at least 50%. >> it is the guilt they feel. it is wrong to feel guilty about their success to feel like they need to give back. is the way bill gates that is objectionable. john: what about rockefeller? he got so rich. >> the richest man in history. >> he gave us light. the life of an american before rockefeller then there was nothing you could do. most could not afford it to lower the price and then you have a light look at of benefit of humanity. of what individuals got and yet he is portrayed as an evil monster. >> he could have saved the whales. >> he made the internal combustion engine possible. we'll was so cheap because of rockefeller now it was economical. john: your kids will not hear that. [laughter] coming up a new way to fund all kinds of things. of aboya club that got clap and. john:

john: said he enlarges berkshire hathaway? >> a phenomenal investor. he should be inesting. he is creating real wealth and get congratulations for a job wl done. >> instead they launched a giving the list. give when you die i will work -- they have signed up petition to give away at least 50%. >> it is the guilt they feel. it is wrong to feel guilty about their success to feel like they need to give back. is the way bill gates that is objectionable. john: what about rockefeller? he got so rich. >> the richest man in history. >> he gave us light. the life of an american before rockefeller then there was nothing you could do. most could not afford it to lower the price and then you have a light look at of benefit of humanity. of what individuals got and yet he is portrayed as an evil monster. >> he could have saved the whales. >> he made the internal combustion engine possible. we'll was so cheap because of rockefeller now it was economical. john: your kids will not hear that. [laughter] coming up a new way to fund ♪ [ male announcer ] how could luminous protein in jellyfish,

. >> a precursor of berkshire hathaway and turned berkshire mills, a shell company, and turned that intocovered that he got 300 shares, he didn't know what the company was. but at the time, those stairs were worth $186,000 each. and he serendipitously got 300 of them. how about that? >> why can't this happen to me? i have a lot of relatives and no reason why i couldn't have a situation like this arise. doesn't have to be coins, i'm not picky, it can be anything you want. i'm flexible. >> like an initial share of coca-cola, something like that. >> exactly. >> fantastic. stuart: it's a pity the gentleman with the gold coins didn't dye, what was it 2011 no estate tax. >> estate tax is detrimental, it's crazy. >> jedia, you can't time your death. >> can't do it. stuart: look we've been having a debate the best part of the week now, three high powered strongly opinionated women are going to weigh in on whether more women in the senate means more compromise, and civility. one of the new at ten stories, and more green energy shakedowns. solar companies possibly fudging the numbers to possibly g

i want to buy berkshire hathaway. a great housing play. let's go to corey in north carolina. >> how about the red skins last night? >> alfred morris has put me at 7 and 6 in my fantasy league. the pringles is good. raw costs coming down. management has it together and kellogg is for me. and that is the conclusion of the lightning round. coming up. rise above. cramer is keeping you one step ahead of the fiscal cliff fiasco. tonight he is getting a read on the regionals the ceo of a national bank. to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. n you take a closer look.... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher l

i want to buy berkshire hathaway. let's go to corey. >> how about the red skins?alfred morris has put me 7 and 6. the pringles is good. management has it together and that is for me. and that is the conclusion of the lightening rount. coming up. rise above. cramer is keeping you one stead ahead. tonight he is getting information from the ceo of national bank. na fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. sven gets great rewards for his small business! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why

at the berkshire hathaway meeting. we are live in san francisco. we are watching greece again. mistakes are being raised and time is running out. >> the greek parliament at an emotional session. detaals going on outside. >> facebook has made its debut at. >> the market is having a turtle bay. and facebook is doing relatively well. liz: blockbuster upholding the insurance mandate that health care bill. >> is about access to care. >> the big rally in the markets across the board. a major blowout at the top of citigroup. >> we talked to charlie gasper enough today. the auto bailout proves to be interesting. you believe it was the one that won ohio for the president? >> yes, i believe it was great for the president. i think it hurts the governor. liz: today, the thousandth episode of countdown to the closing bell. >> i'm here to say congratulations. >> watching the show. at the end of the day, sometimes you get a little tired. some people take that five hour energy drink. and i just want you. you just have so much energy. >> here at the london olympics. >> let's talk about your job

warren buffett, berkshire hathaway, 8.64%. steve cohen does it with a lot of volatility. why i am telling you the feds are after him. here is what i know about this investigation. what sources are telling us. they believe you cannot get that type of consistent success, the notion that every year, basically, posting game, posting gains within not massive volatility. 50%. cheryl: you are very clever and breaking the law. charlie: they do not believe you can do that without insider trading. this is a mindset that pervades each one of these of the sec enforcement chief to the fbi people working on the cases to the justice department. they match up returns of these various guys. they say look at roche, look at how he did this and look at steve cohen. they believe it is just mathematically impossible to beat the markets every year. since the inception, steve cohen has had one down year. that was 2008. he lost 19%. steve cohen when all cash. that was the year of the financial crisis. when these all the stuff coming, he probably just sold a lot of it. he saw it early. there were

berkshire hathaway announcing it will repurchase $1.2 billion worth of class-a shares from the estatea long-time shareholder. pending news briefly halted trading in berkshire shares after the market opened but were up. >>> honda recalling 3780,000 minivans and suv worldwide because they can roll away after drivers remove the keys from the ignition. pilot suv and axe cue a mdx models. >>> par shasetting a new sales record, porsche. already eking out its previous record of 118,000 set last year. >>> redbox is taking on netflix. both stocks were on the up. redbox instant by verizon. the new as far as includes unlimited streaming and four nights of physical dvd rentals for eight bucks a month. >>> microsoft ramping up production and sales of surface tablet. start selling the surface at best buy stores. that, about a second off. liz: two of us are really blowing it. liz: when we dom back is there a danger to tying the unemployment rate of 6.5% to the next fed move as in tightening? alan blend blimeder, former federal reserve vice-chair supermarket watcher. we'll hear from him what he think

they kept the $10,000 investment and when i liquidated the partnership re-invested that in berkshire hathaway they would now have about 500 million. did i very well with small amounts of money back in 1964. when a panic happens with a really good company, i like to buy. >> reporter: buffett's m.o. for investing. this 1901 "new york times" article reminds him daily of an important lesson. >> we never go out on a limb. we always have lots of money. we never borrow a lot of money. first campaign i got active in is when i was 10 years old in 1940 and wilkie was running against roosevelt. my dad thought if roosevelt got elected there would never be another election. >> reporter: a vocal republican in his earlier years, buffett now leans left and is a big obama supporter. >> we were talking about the economy. >> reporter: what else. >> i brought along figures i thought would be of interest to him. this is the presidential medal of freedom. >> reporter: he's never had political ambitions like his father. >> that's my dad's campaign picture when he was 39 years old. this is my dad's desk. this sat on

. >> i read part of this concerns the deal with berkshire ha hathaway.t involved with your client? >> my client did not provide information relating to the berkshire hathaway piece of the story. it's my understanding berkshire hathaway helped deutsche bank during this difficult time. >> you come at this as a former sec lawyer, too, looking at these things. what did you think when you first talked to your client and heard what we to say? >> i was at the sec for eight years and i supervised a number of high-profile mooters and i was shocked by the size and scope of the misconduct alleged and it's the kind of thing that the sec whistleblower program was designed to bring in to the sec and i expect there are more significant cases in the pipeline. >> the new program allows whistleblowers to get proceeds of the profits. would your client stand to get some cut of $12 billion or how does that work? >> no, whistleblowers are entitled to 10% of the monetary collections collected. if the sec finds misconduct and there's a settlement or court order would provide my

. >>> shares of warren buffett's berkshire hathaway getting a jolt. the company is repurchasing 9200 class-a shares from the estate of a quote, long-time shareholder. >>> another business giant repurposing shares. dupont will buy back one billion shares of its stock. it also adjusted its 2012 earnings outlook to the top end of the expected range. shares rose more than 1%. >>> now to our top story. a huge natural gas explosion erupting in west virgina. fouromes went up in flames yesterday before collapsing another five with severe damage. fortunately -- look at that! fortunately no one was killed. but this is not the first time we've seen this of course. it begs the question, would natural gas use is booming across the country will explosions like this happen more often? joining me now is tyson slocum, director of public citizen's energy program. we have david kroetzr researcher in economic and climate change from the heritage foundation. welcome to both of you. what do you think about this. >> i think we definitely have a problem with a lack of adequa

the chairman of berkshire hathaway, warren buffett. he joined us on set along with carol lummis, who came out with the new book, "tap dancing to work: warren buffett on practically everything 1966 to 2012." a compilation about the oracle of omaha. >> what is the principle of warren buffett's life that keeps him who he is, but keeps him in his house and omaha. what's that thing in life that drove him in high school and drives him now? >> well, he does like to succeed, but money is nothing, absolutely nothing. he's always been driven and he got interested in invest, when he was -- well, his first trade was at age 11. i have four grandkids and none seem to be headed in that direction. and he just, he always was interested in every element of investing. >> so he had a goal. >> he had a goal. and you're right, he likes winning. you like winning, you like succeeded, but money, and i'm not just saying this patronizing, because most really rich people i know, money is something that comes along with doing something they love, right? >> absolut

when you look at this as the derivative off the housing play, berkshire hathaway, i think the stock's. >> joe? >> talked about financials before. you will continue to see reserve releases. goldman sachs, tremendous appreciation potential in 2013. in the regionals, look for m & a activities. >> doc? >> i like vmware. i think the pause button has been hit by europe in particular and by u.s. companies as well. i think they take their finger off the pause button and this thing goes back to work. this is one of those great stories that just continues to move forward because of the adoption of virtualization and the cloud, whether it's amazon or anybody else. i love this play. >> we spin the wheel, whether does it stop in 2013? what's the winner? >> i think for me the winner will be short bonds, particularly the ten year. number one it's been an incredible bull market in bonds. but we're seeing flows finally come out of bond funds and go up in equity funds trickling in there. if the reason why everybody likes the market likes it because the economies are improving, that means you'll see the

in fact on the railroad front we have burn link ton northern owned by berkshire hathaway but other winners in this will be the union pacific, the kansas city southern. up in canada we have both the canadian pacific and canadian national who are looking to double their rail shipments of crude oil next year. adam: is this an efficient way to ship oil? there has to be cheaper way to do this? i would imagine an investor who can get in on that would make even more money? >> no doubt it is much more expensive to move oil by tanker car rather than pipeline but the fact of the matter is we're not going to build any pipelines from north dakota through the rockies over to california. nor are we going to build pipelines across pennsylvania, new jersey, to the few refineries on the east coast. so these guys are going to be sitting with rail supplies for quite some time. adam: okay. we talked about the rail companies. who else. are there smaller companies i might be able to start researching to invest in that will part of this $45 billion bonanza just next year? >> if we look to the pipeline companies,

our gary kaminski was critical of the berkshire hathaway purchase of a billion dollars of purchase, saying warren buffett never believed in buy-backs and suggested it may have been motivated to take advantage of lower tax rates this year. mr. buffett was watching, responding with a letter, taking issue with both of these points. and mr. buffett is nothing but meticulous. he said that it's not true that he never supports stock repurr chases. he highlighted a 1984 annual report where he states there is good reason for share repurchases under certain conditions. he's repeated that position, including in this year's annual letter to shareholders. now, regarding the timing of the sale and possible tax reasons for doing so, mr. buffett says estates received a stepped up basis upon death and therefore the estate did not have a gain regardless of when the stock was sold. we thank mr. buffett for watching and setting us straight. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over

>>> still to come on "morning joe," our conversation with investing icon and ceo of berkshire hathawaytt. and later, we're joined by former secretary of state, madeleine albright and the host of msnbc's "hardball," chris matthews. [ male announcer ] feeling like a shadow of your former self? c'mon, michael! get in the game!

part of warren buffett and berkshire hathaway empire.ountdown to the closing bell" next.

i wanted to take a look at shares of berkshire hathaway. rlier, right at the open, berkshire shares were halted. it was unclear why. then we got the news, a significant repurchase of -- or purchase, i should say, of shares from a selling shareholder of some size. it will add up to about $1.2 billion overall, that is when you buy 9,200 shares, it may not seem a lot, but it has a tendency to add up. one would assume that the seller is motivated in part to do this transaction now because of the fiscal cliff. saving what would probably be a significant potential savings as a result of capital gains going up, and this, of course, being a long-term capital gains. we are hearing some names out there as well. but we'll get to them as we confirm who actually may be the seller. but certainly interesting to note that the motivation, one would surmise, may have been as a result of potential increase in the capital gains rate. of course, berkshire stepping up to repurchase that, and raising what it's willing to do so, to 120% of book value. that being wh

>> if they kept the $10,000 investment and i liquidated the partnership, reinvested that in berkshire hathawayion. i did very well with small amounts of money back in 1964, and when the panic happens with a really good company i like to buy. >> reporter: buffett's m.o. for investing, this "new york times" article reminds him of an important lesson. >> we always have lots of money and never borrow a lot of money. first campaign i got really active in was when i was 10 years old in 1940 and wilke was running against roosevelt. my dad thought if roosevelt got elected there'd never be another election. >> reporter: a vocal republican in his earlier years, he now leans left and a big obama supporter. >> i brought along figures i thought would be of interest to him, that was when i got the presidential medal of freedom. >> reporter: he's never had political ambitions like his father. >> that's my dad's campaign picture when he was 39 years old running for congress in 1942. this is my dad's desk, this sat on his desk when i was a kid, when i was 10 years old. i always admired it. >> reporter: i love

berkshire hathaway announced it will repurchase 1.2 billion worth of its class a shares from the estatehareholder. beauty products retailer avon announced this morning it will cut 1500 jobs globally over the next year to streamline its operations. >> robots is looking to challenge the red envelope guys. a red box the ddt as co. is launching a movie streaming services challenge net flicks. the new service will offer an unlimited streaming video plan that includes movies for more brothers and epics along with four nights of ddt rentals for for $8 a month. the service won't include tv shows what it wants is on an invitation only bases before the end the year. videogame disgruntled was caused to those and i are also not included in the plan. >> twitter is getting a facelift today. the newsletter is going to look a lot more like facebook. starting today users can use a header photo that surrounds their profile fog. this our messaging block has been doing is offer a lot the past few months of the new look. twitter says the aim is to make your profile beautiful and is later style on your profi

with every rental, we include complete insurance, backed by berkshire hathaway, 24/7 roadside assistanceround. >> and you handle the billing, right? you collect the money. >> we do. we collect the money, and remit 60% to the car owner. we retain 40% which goes to cover the cost of insurance, roadside assistance, as well as marketing the service. >> interesting. you've crossed the 10,000 car mark, right? >> that's correct. >> five cities now. is this an urban story, or i mean, how -- how much can you blanket the country with this model? >> well, our mission is to bring car-sharing everywhere to empower people to car share everywhere. we really think this is an opportunity to expands outside traditional boundaries, outside the urban centers. but we have seen tremendous growth inside urban centers. just this year so far, we have seen car listings increase by over 500%. >> it seems like it's a story for -- i mean, assuming the economy takes years to find real growth, either you are dealing with people who are challenged economically, right, that feeds your model. or if you simply are interes