QUOTE
“The motor is now
switched off. It’s
fi nished. You need
a new motor.”
Page 10
Newsfront
Markets in Distress:
Winners and Losers
For everyone who lost (money, dignity, reputation),
there’s someone who won in a big way. Newsmax
untangles the mess and identifi es who landed where.
economy would qualify as highway
By David A. Patten
robbery. True, the value of Buffett’s
equity in Berkshire Hathaway alone
N
OW THAT POLITICIANS AND BANKERS
has dropped by more than $9 billion
have conspired to bring the world’s
this year, but don’t let that fool you.
greatest economy to the brink of
It doesn’t take an oracle to know that
another great depression, it feels like
once the market rebounds, Buffett
no one should benefi t.
will be sitting pretty — again.
For better or for worse, however,
that’s not the way free markets —
remember those? — actually work.
Hard-Luck LOSER
Someone always comes out ahead. Sen. John McCain
True, the average Joe the plumb-
Defeated GOP Standard-bearer
er may never know just how close
America came to the Big One —
You can’t blame the entire
and who’s to say we’re out of the
campaign debacle on the meltdown,
woods yet? But considering the close
but it sure didn’t help. One pundit
encounter that the experts say it was,
observed that McCain had the mis-
it seems only fair to name a few
fortune of being defeated twice by
names.
George W. Bush: once when he ran
against him in 2000, and again in
Visionary WINNER
2008 because of Bush’s handling of
TURN FOR THE WORSE Everything
the economy.
Warren E. Buffett
seems to be upside down on
Wall Street lately.
Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway
Well-Heeled WINNER
The iconic investment
Alan H. Fishman
guru accumulated a massive cash
Former CEO, Washington Mutual
million. But when the FDIC took over
position in the years leading up to WaMu on Sept. 25, Fishman imme-
the housing bubble’s popping. Lo The Wall Street meltdown diately lost his job — apparently qual-
and behold, when the stock market has focused a lot of attention on ifying for an $11.6 million severance
crashed and desperate CEOs started CEO salaries, but few tales could rival package. After a highly publicized
rooting through their sock drawers Fishman’s. He was hired on Sept. 8 report by James F. Reda & Associates,
looking for spare change, there was as Washington Mutual’s new CEO the New York-based compensation
Buffett with checkbook in hand. He after mortgage-related losses led to consultant, that Fishman would
invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs the ouster of longtime WaMu execu- earn about $20 million for 17 days
and another $3 billion in General tive Kerry Killinger. Fishman’s hiring on the job, Fishman’s spokesman
Motors, on terms that in any other bonus was a rich deal itself, at $7.5 stated he would not accept the sev-
8 NEWSMAX / DECEMBER 2008
0008_NF_Opener.indd 808_NF_Opener.indd 8 111/11/08 3:54:10 PM1/11/08 3:54:10 PM
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