I am copy/pasting a post I made on him here a day or two ago:
I used to be a disciple of his as an investor in the days he railed against excessive executive compensation and other issues in his annual letters to shareholders, and sometimes in magazine articles or interviews. In the years prior to the financial crisis I began to regard him as a sellout (more likely he always had been and I was blind to it). He became much friendlier with and much more of an apologist for Wall Street; and he capitalized on his connections and reputation to make big returns with sweetheart deals in companies like Goldman Sachs and GE during the financial crisis.
I think it was in the early 2000's when Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway (which he has a huge personal stake in) bought about 20% of the common stock of Burlington Northern (one of the handful of major railroads that dominate the U.S. and Canada). A few years later, Berkshire Hathaway bought Burlington Northern entirely and it became what I'm pretty sure is their largest operating entity. Shipping coal is a huge business for Burlington.
Berkshire Hathaway also has huge stakes in TBTF bank and TARP recipient Wells Fargo, TARP recipient American Express, and the government sanctioned oligopoly credit rating agency Moody's, which in my view should have been put out of business for enabling the explosion in subprime mortgage backed securities by lowering its rating standards and effectively selling its Aaa ratings for larger than normal fees. There should have been criminal prosecutions of executives and mid level employees at Moody's:
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/06/01/warren-buffett-to-break-his-silence-about-moodys/
<Warren Buffett usually loves talking about his investments — both the successful ones and his few flops.
But Buffett’s relationship with Moody’s Investment Services is unusual. The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has said very little about his 13% stake in the rating firm, which has come under heavy fire for its role in the financial crisis. You know the complaints by now: That Moody’s and rivals S&P and Fitch negligently inflated ratings on mortgage securities, as they grew ever keener to win business from Wall Street banks and other underwriters.
But through it all, Buffet has said bupkes. For instance, has not weighed in on the multiple proposals to reform ratings firms, including a recent bill sponsored by Sen. Al Franken, which would put a government committee in charge of selecting the raters. Nor has he addressed the inherent conflicts in the ratings industry’s business model, in which the ratings firms are being paid by the companies that hire them to provide impartial ratings. Buffett has often sounded off on similar conflicts.
Like it or not, Buffett will have his chance tomorrow when he testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission along side Moody’s CEO.>
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