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| Warren Buffet 2nd richest man in America |
Goldman Sachs has been coughing up the equivalent of more than $1.3 million every day to Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway, and now, the Wall Street Journal reports, it may want out.
The Omaha maven's $5 billion investment, announced in September 2008, during a month of financial panic, when Goldman's stock was "embattled," as the New York Times put it, was a boon for the Wall Street bank. The confidence it inspired was worth an additional $5 billion the following day, as other investors followed Buffett's lead, the WSJ notes.
But it came at a huge price for the bank and has turned out to be a huge win for Buffett, whom Forbes ranked this year as the second richest man in the nation, worth at least $45 billion.
According to the WSJ: Berkshire's "perpetual" preferred shares earn a 10 percent dividend annually. That's over $1.3 million a day, or $15 a second, the paper notes.
Even before Buffett invested in Goldman, he had a special place in his heart for the bank. His favorite banker, reportedly, is Byron Trott, a (now former) Goldman employee who, said Buffett, "earns his fee."
One unfortunate detail of Buffett's Goldman investment is that he got a much sweeter deal than taxpayers did. According to Smart Money's calculations, Buffett negotiated better terms than Treasury on dividend payments and warrants -- and his company will receive a 10 percent bonus upon the sale of its preferred shares.
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