buffett likes bets where you just have to sit back and wait. very few have more patience then buffett." diane says, "near-term, b-of-c is the best buy. still, she likes apple for the long term." remember, you can find us on facebook at b-i-z-r-p-t. that's "nightly business report" for thursday, august 25. i'm susie gharib. good night, everyone, and good night to you, too, tom. >> tom: good night, susie. i'm tom hudson. good night, everyone. we hope to see all of you again tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> be more. pbs.

(laughter) >> jon: is warren buffett a socialist? you have no [bleep] clue what socialist is, do you. hey, that george clooney always banging different broads what a year. (laughter) -- what a queer. (laughter) >> jon: so closing a few corporate tax loopholes and returning the top marginal tax rate to the 90s economic boom time levels is class warfare. and if there's one thing the rich have learned, it's that class warfare is hell. >> he invoked the corporate jet class. >> so that's a whole new category of people to demonize, right. >> soak the rich, it's their fault. >> barack obama's tax on these evil, disgusting corporate jet owners. >> demonizing the rich as evil, as lazy, as inheriters of their wealth. >> he's saying fat cats. >> it's disappointing. it's class warfare and the kind of language you would expect from a leader of a third-world country, not the president of the united states. >> jon: true, because united states of america is not a third-world country. by any measure. except perhaps income in equality where we rank--

well i don't hate warren buffett but i have to tell you after reading his piece. he sounded a little like a thought old old man he seems a little angry perhaps that you know the world is moving on without him i also thought it's astonishing that the president now is trying to garner some legitimacy by saying i agree with warren buffett we need to do this and that raise taxes this is ministration this president in particular is entirely too cozy with these mega investors and ultimately the actual product and the rhetoric don't accord if you're saying you're saying that he's he's an angry old man because the world is moving on without him and then you're saying he's in tight with the president i would say if you're in tight with the president the world is not moving away from what i was saying ok well they are saying let me just ask a very simple question what is socialist about asking billionaires i mean he makes the point that he pays seven you pay seventeen percent of total total taxes and his secretary pays what thirty four percent i don't i don't have the artic

loopholes that was going to increase the amount of taxes he pays and if you ask warren buffett one buffett has had a hidden some of his tax revenue in foundations and when they ask him well why don't you put that up for taxable. bigots foundation and my kids who are running these foundations can handle this better than the government why does he get these foundational breaks and he's asking for more tax but the tax rate is this is what i want to you want to do away now you're talking out of both sides and i'm saying that he was the one to him so you said as he wouldn't we shouldn't have government funding for things like health care and charities and all those people because private foundations should take care of that on the other hand you just said but when rich people give money to foundations they should you know that's i don't know we should be just sort of this i want to you know i'm just. he wants people to pay higher taxes if he is himself you're trying to hide his hat you're hiding it accorsi is just some small part of of course he is the problem with. seventy percent he's paying

well, last year buffett paid $7 million in taxes. that sounds like a lot of money, but it works out to a tax rate of just 17%. buffett points out that, on average, his employees pay about double that rate. he says his secretaries and receptionists pay a 33% rate. so why is his rate so low? much of buffett's income comes from capital gains, profits resulting from investments, and they're taxed at only 15%. buffett's solution, rates should be raised for the 300,000 americans who make more than a million a year, left alone for everyone else. an additional 1% tax on the richest americans is estimated to raise $100 billion in extra revenue during the next decade. but tax experts say it's not enough for just the super-rich to pay more. >> the bottom line is that the fiscal hole that we face is so large that everybody is going to have to be prepared to pay more in revenues in the end. >> reporter: and while experts agree that $100 billion over the next decade wouldn't be enough to even make a dent in the deficit, it would go far in other wa

and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture of billionaire tell you coon warren buffett calls out his fellow rich buddies to pay their fair share america's supports is important call to action. plus our corporations really people as mitt romney and sarah palin and rand paul say that controversy will issue corporate personhood later and so. you need to know this let's listen to warren buffett the billionaire and one of the richest men on planet earth has some advice for lawmakers when it comes to taxes in an article in today's new york times buffett argued for his own taxes to be raised as well as others just like it writing about the poor and middle class fight for us in afghanistan and why most americans struggle to make ends meet we measure rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks my friends and i have been coddled long enough but a billionaire friendly congress it's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice buffett's message fell on the ears of president obama who is hosting a town hall in minnesota to kick off a three day bus tour across the mi

they seriously commit to take down president obama in two thousand and twelve and billionaire warren buffett feels the country's wealthiest should pick up the slack by paying higher taxes so will my conservative annele backers opinion we'll see in tonight's lone liberal rumble. you need to know this it's beginning to look more and more like the republican field is not a race for the white house but is that a race to the bottom the bottom being radical far right policies you can wrap your head around firs there was rick perry earlier this week accusing federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he of reason. so. we. are you. training for. all. their interests just awful. he followed up those comments today by accusing climate scientists of manipulating climate change data for money. or their views i do believe that the. issue of global warming as does the size of yours are scientists who have. death. and severe. and i don't think remarks that america should be engaged in standing on still have a scientific theory they have to prove i guess risp rick perry is just doing his part to make sure americ

warren buffett and president called for tax hikes on the rich and 15% fewer of them. that's the decline in number of returns for those making over $200,000 a year. pretty much ben stein makes in a day. and that would be a 55% drop off in tax returns for those making over 10 million dollars, so ben stein, that's not is a good trend. >> well, it's not a good trend, but there is he' still plenty of rich people. we desperately need government revenue. where else except rich people if they have the money to buy bentleys, and they have the money to buy jet airplanes and money to pay more taxes. >> you're saying 200, 250,000 jet airplanes and-- >> no, i'm talking about people like you, have incomes of 10 million a year or more. >> you know, well, by the way, in issue of fairness, no one leaves into the 50% who aren't paying any income taxes that are credited. >> brenda: on pay income tax, too. >> neil: before we get to-- >> you have to take, you have to take away half of their net would worth to get what the bush tax cuts took away from the richest 1% of americans. >> and th

warren buffett puts the rich on notice. the billionaire continues to make the case the mega rich should be asked to pay their fair share of taxes and that's not sitting well with republicans on this "american morning." >>> all right. good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, august 16th. this is "american morning." a lot going on this morning. let's get -- >> why is there a lot going on? isn't this august, not supposed to be a lot going on. >> don't you wish one day we'd say there's nothing going on, go home. >> change the channel. a lot has to do with the economy, up first president obama talking jobs in the heartland of america. the president is in iowa this morning. no straw polls. no campaigns -- it's a campaign stop. it's a campaign-style trip through three mid western states. he'll meet with a group of farmers and small business owners today. he's been making his pitch for job growth and sounding a familiar theme that republicans are playing politics with the economy. >> the problem we have is not with our country. the pr

to begin warren buffett turned heads this week when he wrote this in the new york times he wrote while the poor and middle class fight for us in afghanistan and while most americans struggle to make ends meet we measure which continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks my friends and i have been coddled long enough billionaire friendly cars it's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice talks news followed up by accusing buffett of being a socialist. warren buffett wrote an op ed in new york times today so we should be i think you mentioned earlier we should get we should be taxed more i guess for the people who are doing a little cuddling you guys want to create your article you know these are job creators tax them a little bit more because they're not doing enough already what is this i mean is he completely a socialist so my question what's socialist about asking millionaires and billionaires to pay the exact same tax rate as their secretaries i think warren buffett should go and write a check to start the ball rolling on tax rates not voluntary contributions i

just as bank of america's stock is tanking they got a five billion dollar investment from warren buffett to try to assure people that b. of a is staying afloat is this a sign of what's to come with more banks than just that one dance or all of these questions i spoke with karl denninger of the market ticker and i started off our conversation by asking him if burning his decision to not announce more quantitative easing right now is a good or a bad thing for the u.s. economy here's what he said. a reason to didn't work objectively the only thing it did was live stock prices and now all of the increase that we got over the space of eight months came off in about three weeks so all we ended up with is a temporary sugar high in the stock market and higher gasoline prices while higher gas prices are bad from a consumer groups point of view not good so i don't see why the market would be looking for him to do more of what hasn't worked or why he wouldn't engage in more of what hasn't worked it doesn't make any sense well who benefits from that because there are a lot of people that are saying

so how much does buffett pay in taxes? about $7 million. tom, that sounds like a lot, but buffett says it's only 17% of his income, and he points out the people working in his office actually paid more on a percentage basis. >> tom: certainly some surprising numbers there. clearly continuing that big conversation that america continues to have over taxes, susie. let's go ahead and take a look at tonight's market focus. thanks to today's buying, last week's losses are a memory. here's the dow jones industrial average since last monday. with today's almost 2% gain, the index is higher tonight than before last week's wide ride began. utility and energy stocks led the way. but it was monday deal-making that helped improve the market tone. as we mentioned, bank of america is striking two deals to exit its international credit card business. shares popped almost 8%. this is the past 30 sessions, showing that drop last week to $6.50 per share. here's bank of america since the beginning of the year-- down more than 40%. we learned today hedge fund

and should be getting advice from jimmie buffett, not warren buffett.ore. chief economics writer for the "wall street journal," good to see you, as always. martha: we could all take a little advice from jimmie buffett, right? gregg: sure. martha: you'll need a little margaritaville when you see the home numbers, folks, down for the 4th straight month in a row, this year on track to be the worst year for the housing market on record, and that goes back over the course of 50 years and it continues to be a huge drag on the u.s. economy. gregg: meanwhile he says he knows what it takes to get americans back to work. >> the focus of my effort right now is to make sure people understand that president obama and i could not be more different. he spent his life in politics. i spent my life as a business person, i know what it takes to get jobs again in this country. gregg: mitt romney set town veil his economic plan, but, what is in it? martha: and, there is a new twist in the case, folks, this missing american woman in aruba. now, there is a person who is close

buffett begs to differ. he is offering an alternative.aising taxes on americans making $250,000 and up, he told charlie rose, raise taxes on the very, very rich. >> we're also in the process undertaxing the very rich. what i propose incidentally would not touch the taxes of 99.7%. i'm talking about three-tenths of 1% of the american public. the people from $1 million on up i think should be asked to share in a little of the sacrifice that we're all being asked to share in. >> president obama embraced the idea. republicans did not. senator john cornyn tweeted for tax raising advocates like warren buffett i'm sure treasury would take a voluntary payment for deficit reduction as in hey, mr. buffett, just send the u.s. treasury a check. conservative blogs fired back, too. the red dog report said everybody knows that if tax hikes on the rich fails to solve our economic crisis, which we know they will not, then team obama can go back and ask for more. opening the door to a big tax hike on america's middle class. never mind polls show most ameri

they were almost predetermined to either support buffett or be against buffett without regard for the argument, the merit of what he was actually saying. >> and speaking of the back and forth, senator john cornyn did fire back and he tweeted this and i want to read this for the audience, for the tax-raising advocates like warren buffett, i am sure that the treasury would take a voluntarily payment for the tax reduction and many are saying, should buffett put the money where the mouth is and give some money? >> well, if it did for him, it would make a small dent in the $14 trillion debt, but what is speaking poorly of is what is upcoming of the super committee that is supposed to resolve this, and i for one, don't have high aspirations for what they have to do. >> well, it is a high, high bar and you hit right there. michael smerconish, thank you. >> thank you. >>> and with so much pressure on the candidates in iowa, one journalists say it is not fair for two states to carry so much weight. >>> and when will casey anthony turn herself into florida? >>> and the uk trying to contain the

billionaire investor warren buffett shakes up his portfolio, people pay attention.mpany he chairs bought 1.5 million shares of the discount retail chain dollar general for about $50 million. he also picked up about two million shares of the insurance data phone. it rose almost 5% on monday. that's not bad money for mr. buffet. he increased his considerable stake in wells fargo bank by almost ten million shares and almost doubled his holdings in master card. but buffet sold six million shares of the food giant kraft. he still holds more than 150 million shares of that company. of course, why not? because after all, companies whose products you understand and i don't imagine he understands food pretty well like the rest of us andrew. >> i know the way around chocolate bars since -- buying a discount rye tailer and a credit card operator. there's a theme going on there as the u.s. struggles with a much weaker economy. buffet has made billions about how he coaxes profits from his investments. now he's telling u.s. congress that it needs to coax more taxes out of rich pe

the case let's sell him some special treasuries it'll save the taxpayers a lot of money if warren buffett a really buy our debt if we pay nothing and of course he also said that the federal government has a printing press well you know what good is that to our creditors it's great for the government because it you know it inflates away its liabilities but it also inflates the way the public's assets including the asses of warren a warren buffett of course he's criticizing. s. and p. for missing some private housing bubble he missed it too he got it completely wrong in fact many of his companies might have gone bankrupt if the financial institutions weren't bailed out by by the u.s. government but they did two trillion dollars math error so-called is again based on s. and p. not calculating the full amount of the savings that congress claims are going to be made over the next ten years based on what they agreed to but almost all of the two trillion in cuts happen sometime after two thousand and seventeen they'll be a different president they'll be a different contract congress they will no

claim they're not as we saw with bank of america in this little game that they played with warren buffett this week and that's a question i want to ask about bank of america why you pointed out in your blog that they would have done as good a term from warren buffett as they would have gotten from the fed so why wouldn't they just go to the fact that money. they could have borrow that money from the fed for the twenty fifth of what they're aiming for in buffett why would you pay twenty five times more six percent as opposed to a quarter percent for money that you supposedly according to the management of bank of america you don't need that doesn't make any sense and contrary to promoting confidence i think it sounds an awful lot like what happened in two thousand and eight when everybody ran around and said world capitalized we don't need a money and then three weeks later they blew up are you scared that more banks then bank of america are not capital i don't have enough cash and could tank. real problem especially in europe is that you have a lot of institutions that have exposure to so

knows as alan greenspan said it warren buffett said they don't have to default they could print but that's worse especially if you're a bond holder and you get paid back with monopoly money and so what this means is that all debt in dollars should be downgraded whether it's treasuries muni's corporates you name it if it's pay you back in dollars get rid of it all right now let's talk about the whole rating agency motif you know how they how they have the role that they've played in this crisis and what's been going on the last few years because during the lead up to the crisis they document very well in your book crash proof and crash proof two point zero you talk about how the rating agencies were. remember in that they gave the derivatives a collateralized debt obligations and these other concatenations bastardizations the securitizations triple a rating so why suddenly did they get religion how did that how did that happen because they were they were in you know god it's funny that the obama administration is saying well why should we listen to s. and p. after all they got it so wrong w

and warren buffett, i mean, i would be in favor of raising taxes on warren buffett. let's have a voluntary raising of paying taxes. if you want to pay more taxes like warren buffett, you can put your rate up to 80%. he can pay 100% as far as i'm concerned. what i'm worried about is what that doll to small and medium sized businesses and investment. basically, we lowered taxes dramatically three times. kennedy, reagan, and bush. each time we've gotten a big economic bounce. >> let me ask you if you don't run, rudy, which of the candidates at the moment is the one that you would feel most comfortable being the nominee for the republicans? >> i haven't really focused in on it. i think that governor perry's record as governor of texas is an excellent one. ten years of excellent management. he has kind of the background that president obama lacked. but michele bachmann and governor romney also have things to argue in their favor. i'm a close friend of rick santorum. so there are a lot of -- and newt gingrich may be the single smartest guy in the entire race. so you've go

last week billionaire capitalist warren buffett called on congress to stop coddling millionaires and billionaires and raise taxes on people like himself the same level that his secretary pays asking that the over rich pay taxes like everybody else didn't just draw the ire of talking millionaire heads like eric bolling of fox so-called news who apparently missed econ one hundred one of those called bof a socialist he also said a fellow fellow billionaire oil all of our charles koch estate and released to right wing media outlets charles koch responded to buffett by writing i believe my business a nonprofit investments are much more beneficial to society well being than spend sunday in anymore money to washington which makes me wonder of charles koch even knows how he made his billions in america because he realized that it was thanks to washington's international treaties negotiated by government negotiators and ratified by the government senate that allowed his dad to do business with joseph stalin and make hundreds of millions by setting up fifteen oil refineries in communist soviet

buffett's solution?ised for the 300,000 americans who make more than $1 million a year. left alone for everyone else. an additional 1% tax on the richest americans is estimated to raise $100 billion in extra revenue during the next decade. but tax experts say it's not enough for just the super-rich to pay more. >> the bottom line is that the fiscal hole that we face is so large that everybodydy going to have to be prepared to pay more in revenues in the end. >> reporter: while experts agree $100 billion over the next decade isn't enough to even make a dent in the deficit, it could make a difference in other ways. for example, it could build 7,000 new elementary schools, or 2,000 new high schools. bianna golodryga, abc news, new york. >> buffett had a lot to say. also kind of said that whole debt ceiling debate and debacle in washington hurt the faith in government and they needed to take steps to restore people's faith, that government can do something. >> there's a reason people call him the oracle of o

. >> warren buffett is going to invest in a bank of america.orfolk virginium as a navy fleet leaves port this is all in preparation for hurricane irene they are heading to a safer place we will be right back and laugh. writing for the opening bell on wall street as futures were down and we have had three winning days in a row on wall street nasdaq was up 22 asian stocks are up and oil prices are up in asia. we are keeping an eye on bank of america stock warren buffett is investing $5 billion in bank of america >> a new poll shows americans all look on the economy is damn more adults are blaming former president george bush then they are blaming of president obama. half of the survey think he should get a second term. >> steve jobs was the balance point of that company and now we're going to see a different company >> apple stock after closing took a big drop in we are keeping our eye on apple shares and steve the job when we come back. the bay area -- a place with natural beauty and a forward thinking spirit. at bank of america, we've been fuel

warren buffett investing on bank of america. on very important terms for berkshire hathaway. shares of the company jumped on the news. the big meeting in jackson hole, how does the economy shape up for the rest of the year. joining me is jack ablin. jack, good to have you on the program. thank you for your time today. >> thank you, maria. >> so, the markets have been watching and waiting to see what ben bernanke would say and do at this summit in jackson hole, wyoming. what is your reaction to the speech? >> well, i think it was pretty much big swing and a miss for the market. we had a big buildup earlier in the week in stock prices. i was fearful that that was in anticipation of the chairman coming up with some new magic solution. but realizing that he doesn't have a lot of arsenal left, i didn't -- you know, i have to imagine he didn't sleep very well thursday night and, of course, friday morning, we saw that he really put the ball back into congress and the president's court. >> yeah, he said things like, look, we need to see fiscal policy, that encourages companies to cre

warren buffett wrote an op ed york times today so we should be i think you mentioned earlier we should do it we should be taxed more of just the people who are in a little cut when you got the ones who create all you want to do here these are job creators tax them a little bit more because they're not doing enough already what is this i mean oh is he completely a socialist and he's playing interviews to obama's hands of. you know i have really had it with this word i don't believe in a tit for tat eye for an eye mentality i don't think it's ok to call tea partiers care. just because the right wing calls obama a socialist and i for starters believe that you should be able to say whatever you want because you have the freedom of speech in this country but if you're going to go on the airwaves and say whatever you want it's up to the media to check that i get instead of checking it the mainstream media either perpetuate it perpetuates it by using the words themselves as you just saw on fox news or they just ignore it or scoff and giggle for a second and move on like m s n.b.c. or c.n.n. b

buffett really goes his own way.s is a man who was a supporter and outspoken supporter of president obama but he is calling for a different tax plan than what the president is calling for. this is someone, i think, sees the country in such peshl right now, he believes something significant needs to change and when warren buffett talks, people listen. he does go out on a limb when he needs to and writing the op-ed in "the new york times" on monday morning saying this outstanding wh outlining what he thinks should happen and taking a position he thinks lawmakers should be tag is different than he has. i think he sees this country in a crisis right now. he believes and he said this last night on charlie rose, america will make it through. america always makes it through but it's going to be tough if we don't get our house in order. >> poppy, thanks. >>> coming up, can a black man really win the republican nomination? and why aren't people asking herman cain that? it has lz granderson's attention. he talks about it next.

warren buffett joins know talk about his column, the u.s. economy, the global economy, the deficit and the debt and what he thinks we should do about taxes. i am pleased to have another conversation with my friend warren buffett. welcome. >> good see you, charlie. >> rose: all right. this is not a new idea. >> no, it's not a new idea. i've done this three times in terms of checking in my office and ery time i come out to be the low taxpayer but this year i got a little more upset than usual. >> rose: so you decided you wanted to write and express what central idea? >> well, we've been hearing about shared sacrifice. and believe me, the people out there know what they're talking about on that. i mean, there is sacrifice going on all over this country and we're talking about people makingacrices about the promises that have been made to them in the future on some entitlements. so i decided to look around and see if any of my friends were being affected by shared sacrifice and they, like me, are enjoying these extremely low t rates and the very

of them have more garden variety income than warren buffett does.aid that, the tax rates on the rich and very rich have fallen more than they have for any other group than they have over the last generation. and those are also peat pull who have gottenÑi the biggest pretax raises. if you're looking relative to where we a, where we've been historically, it is true the faxes on the rich and very rich are quite low right now. and that cannot by itself, as party was saying solve the deficit or come anywhere close tight. but there is enough income there that canñr make a substantial >> charlie: now we come to this segment. what happened when you worked hard on tax reform. what did you create and what's happened to it in the years since? >> well tax reform like most laws are like castles next to the ocean. they wash away. what we did then wa we crafted a bill that attracted republicans and democra. we lowered tax rates, which is what republicans wantedand to pay for that we eliminated loopholes. by doing that we got the tax rate fromñr 50 to 28%. the resu