kwero

This is long overdue. The United Kingdom has the second worst campaign finance system in the Western World. I mean, David Cameron got caught selling access in exchange for donations:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/mar/26/david-cameron-private-dinners-tory-donors

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/mar/25/david-cameron-peter-cruddas-pressure

The same thing happened again with Boris Johnson:

https://www.ft.com/content/8c6041ff-a223-43e9-9e45-53c3f7cf47f7

After scandals like this, many Western Democracies changed their campaign finance laws. Britain never did. A single guy just gave £9 million to Reform:

https://theconversation.com/reforms-9m-gift-and-the-rise-of-the-political-mega-donor-271428

What makes the UK particularly vulnerable to foreign powers is that:

Donations from non-UK citizens are legal.
MPs are allowed to have second jobs.

I have a book called "Warren Buffet on practically everything"

For those who don't know him, Warren Buffet is, alongside George Soros, one of the best investors of all time. He is single largest investor in Coca-Cola and Apple.

He is basically the godfather of american capitalism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett

One of the strangest thing about him is that he owns ruthless corporations, but on a personal level, he is actually surprisingly human. For instance, he publically criticized the Bush administration for cutting taxes on rich people:

https://www.npr.org/2007/11/15/16314513/warren-buffett-backs-the-estate-tax

https://www.reuters.com/article/business/buffett-backs-estate-tax-decries-wealth-gap-idUSN14423830/

Don't get me wrong. I don't think he is a good guy, but as far as billionaires are concerned, I would put him in the the least evil category.

Anyway, I got that book right on my shelf.

It's a collection of news stories about Buffet published in Fortune Magazine and carefully selected by the author because she found them interesting. One of the chapters is about why he decided in 2009 to invest in an unknown chinese company called BYD.

Here is the original story in PDF:

Warren Buffett takes charge - April 13, 2009

Warren Buffett is famous for his rules of investing: When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact. You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will. And perhaps most famously, Never invest in a business you cannot understand.

So when Buffett's friend and longtime partner in Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB), Charlie Munger, suggested early last year that they invest in BYD, an obscure Chinese battery, mobile phone, and electric car company, one might have predicted Buffett would cite rule No. 3 above. He is, after all, a man who shunned the booming U.S. tech industry during the 1990s

Buffett, who is 78, was intrigued by Munger's description of the entrepreneur behind BYD, a man named Wang ChuanFu, whom he had met through a mutual friend. "This guy," Munger tells Fortune, "is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch - something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do. I have never seen anything like it

Coming from Munger, that meant a lot

Last fall Berkshire Hathaway bought 10% of BYD for $230 million. The deal, which is awaiting final approval from the Chinese government, didn't get much notice at the time. It was announced in late September, as the global financial markets teetered on the abyss. But Buffett and Munger and Sokol think it is a very big deal indeed. They think BYD has a shot at becoming the world's largest automaker, primarily by selling electric cars, as well as a leader in the fast-growing solar power industr

In acquiring a stake in BYD, Buffett broke a couple of his own rules. "I don't know a thing about cellphones or batteries," he admits. "And I don't know how cars work." But, he adds "Charlie Munger and Dave Sokol are smart guys, and they do understand it. And there's no question that what's been accomplished since 1995 at BYD is extraordinary."

One more thing reassured him. Berkshire Hathaway first tried to buy 25% of BYD, but Wang turned down the offer. He wanted to be in business with Buffett - to enhance his brand and open doors in the U.S., he says - but he would not let go of more than 10% of BYD's stock. "This was a man who didn't want to sell his company," Buffett says. "That was a good sign."

(..............)

Wang typically works until 11 p.m. or midnight, five or six days a week. "In China, people of my generation put work first and life second," says the CEO, whose wife takes responsibility for raising their two children

Wang himself grew up in extreme poverty. His parents, both farmers, died before he entered high school, and he was raised by an older brother and sister. The train ride from the village where he grew up to Central South Industrial University of Technology, where he earned his chemistry degree, took him by Yellow Mountain, a popular destination for hikers and tourists, but he has never visited there. "I didn't go then because we had no money," he says. "I don't go now because we have no time."

As for accumulating wealth? "I'm not interested in it," he claims. He certainly doesn't live a very lavish lifestyle. He was paid about $265,000 in 2008, and he lives in a BYD-owned apartment complex with other engineers. His only indulgences are a Mercedes and a Lexus, and they have a practical purpose: He takes their engines apart to see how they work

The company itself is frugal. Until recently, executives always flew coach.

One told me he was appalled when he learned that Ford, which lost billions last year, had staged a gala at the Hotel George V during the Paris auto show. By contrast, the last time BYD executives traveled to the Detroit auto show they rented a suburban house to save the cost of hotel rooms

(.................)

"How did BYD get so far ahead?" Warren Buffett asked Wang, speaking through a translator. "Our,company is built on technological know-how," Wang answered. Wary as always of a technology play, Buffett asked how BYD would sustain its lead. "We'll never, never rest," Wang replied.

https://ganahl.info/2010/byd.warrenbuffed.pdf

This story was originally published in 2009. The book was published in 2012.

Look at BYD now...

A US corporation thinks it's more legitimate than the Parliament of Australia.

The one easy thing that every country should do is ban parking requirement.

Requiring developers to build parking in every apartment building significantly increases the cost of housing. These costs are always passed on to new buyers.

Parking requirements also encourage extreme car dependency.

https://www.ecf.com/en/news/cut-housing-costs-by-up-to-20-reforming-parking-mandates-for-affordable-housing/

Fun fact

Canada currently gives tax breaks to people that give money to the following universities :

Tel-Aviv University
Ariel University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Bar-Ilan University
University of Haifa
Yeshivat Aish Hatorah

👉 https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/charities-giving/other-organizations-that-issue-donation-receipts-qualified-donees/other-qualified-donees-listings/list-prescribed-universities-outside-canada.html

If Israel is showing such disrespect, their charitable statuts should be revoked.

In fact, there are far too many foreign universities in this list. WTF

A UK government spokesman said: “Our special relationship with the US remains strong and the UK is firmly committed to ensuring the tech prosperity deal delivers opportunity for hardworking people in both countries.”

The UK-US special relationship is special because only Brits believe it's true.

Great journalism from The Guardian 👏

Billionaires Joesley and Wesley Batista own JBS, the largest meat company that the world has ever seen. Their clients include Aldi, Carrefour, Walmart, Burger King, McDonalds.

Wherever you are in the world, if you eat meat, you are very likely enriching these two brazilian brothers.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2019-07-02/jbs-brazilian-butchers-took-over-the-world

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-25/jbs-meat-company-australia-four-corners-investigation/100997044

Almost 8 years ago, Wesley and Joesley Batista were in jail, engulfed in a corruption scandal that nearly toppled the Brazilian president Michel Temer.

Now they are back at the height of their power. And they getting involved in international diplomacy.

Australian resident, not citizen. That's not exactly the same thing.

The man arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, authorities said, and was an Australian resident when he died. Officials wouldn't confirm what country he had migrated from.

A foreigner should not be allowed to obtain a gun licence.

This is the first loophole that needs to be closed.

From what I understand, in exchange of agricultural products from Brazil and Argentina, these countries will make it easier for large EU corporations to sell cars and planes.

It's basically bad for farmers but good for industry.

In theory, the winners are supposed to compensate the losers. In theory...

I'm not against international trade, but EU elites have lost the plot

Trade deals should have much stronger environmental and labor norms.

kwero

@ kwero @sh.itjust.works

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