Bear and Buffett??? C'mon

I was going to do a blog about this but someone else did it for me that echoed my thoughts.

"That's right, the world's best known value investor wants to own a company that could very likely have zero book value. A buyer of businesses with reliable earnings streams now wants to get into trading? Buffett is the guy who had an unpleasant time running the ego factory at Salomon Brothers, and now we are told is looking at Bear? The man who is the chief spokesperson for the "Derivatives are financial WMDs" -- he's a tire kicker for the poster boy for MBS derivatives driven hedge fund disasters?

PUH-leeze.

As we noted yesterday, much of the broker's reported earnings gains are accounting sleight of hand. Bear Stearns' earnings benefited from a drop in the value of their own debt -- about $225 million. Some people have estimated that the gains from such write downs were 140% of the quarterly earnings. "

Maybe the rumors are true.....I seriously doubt it.