Late night Friday - did we miss any news? - 11:10 PM

Jumped on the net to see if any banks were victims of the FDIC carnivore tonight. It appears there were none. The under bet wins, this week. (correction - see below) What did catch my eye was the earnings report from our favorite Oracle. Seems Mr. Buffett didn't have a great quarter, or year for that matter. Berkshire report from Reuters: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc posted its first quarterly loss since 2001, hurt by losses on derivative contracts, a big investment in the oil company ConocoPhillips, and the weakening economy. When Warren talks, people listen. He's the second or third richest guy in the world, why wouldn't we. When I read his report, I remembered what he said a few years ago. Frankly, I don't know what to think. March 4, 2003 from Warren: The derivatives market has exploded in recent years, with investment banks selling billions of dollars worth of these investments to clients as a way to off-load or manage market risk. But Mr Buffett argues that such highly complex financial instruments are time bombs and "financial weapons of mass destruction" that could harm not only their buyers and sellers, but the whole economic system. The point of the article, summed up by the BBC is this: The rapidly growing trade in derivatives poses a "mega-catastrophic risk" for the economy and most shares are still "too expensive", legendary investor Warren Buffett has warned. You can read the entire article here. That was 6 years ago. What changed Warren? Why didn't anyone listen, and why didn't you listen to yourself? This is the kind of stuff that makes me wonder about the entire machine we know as a market. Derivatives are a form of leverage. Sometimes too much leverage, and many times off the books. We still hear about them, but the name has changed. They are now called "toxic assets." The same toxic assets the so called "stess test" didn't address, or account for. More proof the stress tests are utter BS. These derivatives, many based on real estate, both residential and commercial, are still "financial weapons of mass destruction." Good thing these banks had such a good month. **** Update - April 9, 2009 FDIC Friday strikes again! You can read the report from the FDIC website here On Friday, May 8, 2009, Westsound Bank, Bremerton, WA was closed by the Washington Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed. Not sure when this was released. Number 33 for the year. You can see all of them here.