Hey Weekenders,

I am sitting in on the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder’s Meeting right now and the question of Goldman Sachs’s lawsuit has come up (no surprise there). So, I thought that you might be interested in hearing Warren Buffett’s and Charlie Munger’s take on the Goldman Sachs lawsuit:

Our experience with Goldman goes back 44 years, and during those years we have bought more businesses through them, than any other investment bank. (Warren)

Ironically, it has probably helped our investment in Goldman. We have preferred stock with Goldman…Every day that goes by, that Goldman does not call our preferred, it is money in the bank. We get $15 every second from our preferred. I don’t want those preferred to go away. (Warren)

[On Goldman Sachs's Reputation] There is no question that the allegation alone causes the company to lose reputation. The press of the last few weeks hurt the company…But I don’t believe that the allegation of something falls within my category of losing reputation in something. Now, the proving something is different…if it leads into something more serious, than we will see in that time. (Warren)

I agree with all of that, but I also think that every business ought to decline a lot of perfectly legal business. The standards of business should not be what is legal and convenient. (Charlie)

Stay tuned for more of Warren and Charlie’s Wisdom,

Bill, the blogger