Rush Limbaugh has no problems with U.S. medical care, but Warren Buffett’s sister says many people aren’t so lucky.
Doris Buffett, whose Sunshine Lady Foundation gave $10.4 million in contributions in 2008 to a wide range of charities, was interviewed by Davidson College of Charlotte, N.C., one of 15 colleges where she supports classes on philanthropy to give students firsthand experience with the process of making wise donations.
She told the college’s interviewer that among other purposes, her donations go toward education and to groups that help battered women and people who need financial help because of illness.
The financial struggles resulting from having illnesses “are just unbelievable, that people did nothing to instigate themselves,” she said. “They just have a terrible time, that’s all there is to it. They can’t get the help, despite what Rush Limbaugh said the other day.
“He said he got wonderful care, there’s nothing wrong with the medical system in the United States. Well, I beg to differ.”
Limbaugh, a conservative radio talk-show host who opposes the health care legislation being debated in Congress, spent a night in a hospital in Hawaii last month after suffering chest pains. At a press conference Jan. 1 when he was released, he said:
“The treatment I received here was the best that the world has to offer. Based on what happened here to me, I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the American health care system. It is working just fine, just dandy.”
Doris Buffett said she hopes the philanthropy classes leave students with “the urge to do things for people all their life. Where they see the need, fulfill it. To do something, to be an activist, and social justice. Just helping people who need help.
“The basis of every religion is, ‘Do ye unto others as you would have them do unto you.’”
No to cycles
Chinese autos, yes.
Chinese motorcycles, no.
Gasgoo.com cited a Reuters report that Chinese motorcycle manufacturer Zongshen Power Machinery denied Buffett has shown an interest in investing.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the Omaha-based investment company that Buffett heads, owns 10 percent of BYD Co., a Chinese company that makes automobiles and batteries, and Buffett has invested in other Chinese businesses.
But Zongshen said in a statement to the Shenzhen stock exchange that it has had no contact with Buffett and had not held any investment discussions.
“The company also guarantees that in the next six months, it will not have any cooperation with Buffett on investment in new energy motorcycles.”
Zongshen Chairman Zuo Zongshen plans to visit the United States later this month, and rumors that he would meet with Buffett pushed up the company’s share price by 10 percent last week. The company did not deny a possible meeting between the two, however.
No Warren Buffett
Peter Mandelson, Britain’s business secretary, is weighing in on the offer by Kraft Foods to acquire Cadbury’s, a deal of interest because Berkshire is Kraft’s largest shareholder and Buffett has said Kraft shouldn’t raise its purchase offer. Cadbury’s management opposes the sale.
Lord Mandelson held a meeting last week of British institutions, including some that own Cadbury shares, to warn about the dangers of short-term investing — with the Kraft takeover proposal on his mind, Matthew Curtin wrote for the Wall Street Journal.
“But Lord Mandelson isn’t Warren Buffett,” the report said. “It’s not clear what insight this career politician will offer on the subjects of investment appraisal, portfolio management and the efficient allocation of capital.
“Cadbury is a much better business than it was a decade ago partly because management has been under pressure from all investors, regardless of nationality and investment horizon, to improve returns on capital or be booted out.”
Cadbury’s fate rests mostly with foreign investment groups and funds that try to make profits by investing in companies that are acquisition targets, the story said.
“By putting Cadbury on the agenda, Lord Mandelson is at best guilty of political grandstanding,” the Journal said. “At worst, he’s injecting a new interventionist streak into British industrial policy, at odds with the U.K.’s long history of openness to foreign investment.”
Posco steel
Berkshire is an investor in South Korean steelmaker Posco, which BusinessWeek said recently reported its highest profit in more than a year.
Posco’s net income totaled $1.1 billion in the last three months of 2009, up more than 50 percent from a year earlier.
The company plans record capital spending this year, up 9.3 percent, to meet demand for steel from the rebounding global economy, the story said, with new plants in India, Indonesia and Vietnam to boost production by 16.6 percent in an effort to become Asia’s largest steelmaker.
“Posco was able to recover faster than anybody in the market,” the company said. “We weathered the crisis by cutting output by only 20 percent in the first half, while global rivals had to cut by more than 40 percent.”
Share prices of Posco gained 63 percent in 2009, BusinessWeek said.
Contact the writer:
444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com
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