Buffet bats for Goldman, says sees no problem with Abacus deal

Wall Street's long time critic, Warren Buffett, has now turned its staunchest supporter. The legendary investor, at his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, yesterday rushed to the defense of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which is under market regulator SEC's scanner for an alleged civil fraud.

The group is also taking flak in the Congress for its business dealings.

Buffet also praised Moody's Corp whose ratings agency has been slammed as being too cozy with bankers.

Acknowledging that banks and other financial firms had indulged in excesses leading up to the crisis, he did not blame them for having precipitated the crisis - rather he blamed the "mania that prevailed throughout the investment world" at the time for the crisis.

"I haven't seen anything in Goldman's behaviour that makes it any more subject to criticism than Wall Street generally," Buffett said at a news conference yesterday, the day after Berkshire's annual meeting.

Buffett's latest remarks are in complete contrast to his position on the self-serving ways of Wall Street and to the ethos of his shareholder meetings generally.
The event, held far from financial centres saw, some 40,000 investors attend what is regarded as a sort of pep rally for Berkshire and it investment culture based on basic-business values investing.