Obama helps strengthen General Electric-Putin ties

(AP Photo/Alexei Nikolsky, Pool)

Reuters reports an interesting nugget in the wake of President Barack Obama's decision to grant Vladimir Putin his wish and kill the Eastern European missile shield:

Shortly after the pullback on the shield programme was announced, Russia's government said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would meet several U.S. executives on Friday from firms including General Electric, Morgan Stanley as well as TPG, one of the world's largest private equity firms. GE also owns NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and is in line for the contract to manage all heath records if ObamaCare (any of the present bills being considered) passes, giving the government total access to your health information and history as well as your bank account. They also are inline to receive huge Cap and Trade Contracts if that bill passes. The GE Combine will make Enron look like kindergartners play!

General Electric may be the company with the closest ties to the Obama administration (if not, GE is second only to Goldman Sachs), and here we see the company benefiting from an abrupt foreign policy change made by President Obama. But GE isn't the only company benefiting. Reuters paints the broader picture:

"U.S. companies have arguably lost out to some European companies in joint ventures, and better diplomacy will likely improve the chances for investors in the strategic sectors of the Russian economy," said Carlo Gallo, senior Russia analyst at London-based consultancy Control Risks.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt sits on Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and GE owns MSNBC, the network famously friendly to Obama.

By: TIMOTHY P. CARNEY
Examiner Columnist
09/17/09 2:06 PM EDT

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Obama takes on Fox News… Loses

When is Barack Obama going to learn that presidents shouldn't play press critic? It didn't work for Richard Nixon. It didn't work for Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. It didn't help John McCain win the White House, and it won't help Obama, who vented his frustration with Fox News during an interview on CNBC yesterday.

"I've got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration," Obama told John Harwood, who had asked him how he felt about coverage of his administration. "That's a pretty big megaphone. You'd be hard-pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front."

Fox News (which Obama pettishly declined to name) is indeed a big megaphone -- big and getting bigger. And that's no accident. As I've written before, Fox is big because it speaks to an audience that doesn't feel its concerns represented elsewhere on TV (and, yes, because Roger Ailes is a pro at producing slick, loud, button-pressing programming in general). For Obama to turn his back on that audience because he doesn't feel like he gets a fair shake from Fox would be a mistake. He all but acknowledged that himself during the campaign, when he finally granted an interview to Bill O'Reilly after being hounded for months.

That's not to say Obama has no grounds for complaint. Anyone who watches Fox for a few minutes can tell that its default attitude towards him is skepticism. And that perception of Fox is backed up by research. The Center for Media and Public Affairs, which analyzed evening newscasts earlier this year, determined that Fox was alone in offering more negative than positive comments on Obama. The Project for Excellence in Journalism found much the same when it looked at coverage of Obama's first 100 days in office.

But just because you're right doesn't mean you're well-advised to go around saying so. Obama, who lectured Ailes in person at a secret meeting last summer, may think he can browbeat Fox into being nicer to him. He can't. Fox made its bones on the notion that it, alone among TV networks, is not part of the Liberal Media Conspiracy. For Obama to single out Fox for censure only confirms that impression. Not to mention that Obama's complaining about Fox's darts while gratefully basking in MSNBC's equal-but-opposite tilt sounds suspiciously like whining. (David Zurawik called Obama's diss of Fox News "a childish, silly bit of gamemanship by a president.")

Above all, it's futile. For whatever reason, Fox's ratings have climbed in recent months as the network's stridency towards him has escalated. As long as that trend keeps up, no amount of finger-wagging from the Oval Office is going to make a difference.

Jeff Bercovici – Daily Finance
Jun 18th 2009 at 2:00PM

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Posted: Knowledge Creates Power

Warren Buffett Sees Much Higher Unemployment Ahead

Billionaire Warren Buffett says the economy has "fallen off a cliff" over the past six months and consumers have changed their habits in remarkable ways.

Buffett said Monday during a live appearance on CNBC that current economic turmoil has basically followed the worst-case scenario he envisioned.

"It's fallen off a cliff," Buffett said. "Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven't seen."

Buffett said he's seen the changes showing up in the results of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s subsidiaries. He said Berkshire's jewelry companies have suffered, but more people have been willing to switch to Geico to save money on car insurance.

Buffett predicted that unemployment will likely climb a lot higher before the recession is done, but he also reiterated his optimistic long-term view.

"Everything will be alright. We do have the greatest economic machine that's ever been created," Buffett said.

Buffett said the nation needs a clear message from the government about what the problem is in the economy and what will be done. He said all 535 members of Congress should set aside partisan bickering to deal with what Buffett has called an economic Pearl Harbor.

"What is required is a commander in chief that's looked at like a commander in chief in a time of war," Buffett said.

Fear and confusion has been driving much of consumer and investor behavior in recent months, Buffett said. The nation's leaders need to clear up the confusion about the economy before anyone will become more confident, he said.

A little over a week ago, Buffett released his annual letter to shareholders describing the worst of his 44 years at the helm of Berkshire. The Omaha, Neb.-based company reported sharply lower profit because of its largely unrealized $7.5 billion investment and derivative losses.

Overall, Berkshire's 2008 profit of $4.99 billion, or $3,224 per Class A share, was down 62 percent from $13.21 billion, or $8,548 per share, in 2007.

Berkshire's fourth-quarter numbers were even worse. Buffett's company reported net income of $117 million, or $76 per share, down 96 percent from $2.95 billion, or $1,904 per share, a year earlier.

Berkshire owns a diverse mix of more than 60 companies, including insurance, furniture, carpet, jewelry, restaurants and utility businesses. And it has major investments in such companies as Wells Fargo & Co. and Coca-Cola Co.

Source:  MoneyNews.com