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We asked, viewers voted. Below are the results of the Power Lunch "Power Player" of the year poll.
See below for some of the write-in nominees for the Power Player of the Year.
Write-In Nominees for Power Player of the Year
It's interesting that Warren Buffett hasn't even been mentioned in this contest. Not only has he had notable impact in '08, but he is using the opportunity to snap up great businesses at bargain rates (while the rest of us, including your reporters, are distracted by the "falling sky").
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CNBC.com Warren Buffett |
He had the smarts and confidence to build up a huge stockpile of cash over the past decade, refused to pay a dividend (like many said he should), unwound the dangerous derivatives at General Re, and now has been putting tens of billions to work. Most of the coverage of his op-ed in the New York Times included misinformation discrediting him like multiple guest/reporters on CNBC saying "he's lost tons of money on the GS and GE deals" (that's wrong, by the way...he didn't buy the common...but I never heard any of your commentators correct these misstatements. He's MAKING 10% on the prefereds).
While Dimon, Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke are bailout out the WEAK, Buffett is bailing out the STRONGER (Goldman Sachs, GE). If that doesn't scream power, I don't know what does. It simply reminds me why he is who he is — he's focused on making money, looking at the opportunities, avoiding the distractions, while too many (not all) of you guys are focused on 1.) denying that we're in a recession for as long as possible (Kudlow, through most of '08), or now trying to call a bottom. Or the endless coverage of the auto bailout, and the $25ish billion (pocket change at this point) while hardly ever even mentioning the TRILLIONS of $$ growth of the Fed's balance sheet and why they refuse to disclose what assets and which companies are involved. Sorry for the rant, but I think it all ties in to why Warren Buffett deserves at least a mention — he continues to demonstrate qualities that we who want to be better investors should try to emulate.
— Gavin, Lansing, Mich.
How about volatility traders? With VIX touching record highs, day traders and brokers have made record profits. (Keep track of the VIX and other global indexes here.)
— Amit, Chicago
My pick for power player of the year is Christopher Cox.
1. The removal of the uptick rule contributed to the biggest destruction of wealth in the history of mankind.
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CNBC.com Christopher Cox |
2. His organization's failure to enforce regulation or even investigate allowed Madoff to lose billions.
3. He presided over the demise of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers a couple hundred years of business. How many banks went under or merged.
4. How about Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch forced to their knees by leveraging unregulated and wanton short-selling rumors. The SEC stood by and did nothing.
More wealth was lost under his "lack of watch" than any human being in history.
— Rich, New Jersey
My nomination for "Power Player of the Year" is Jim Cramer. His "they know nothing" rant was a Paul Revere like call to the dangerous revolution happening in the world's markets.
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His list of warnings continued over the summer. They included: the negative influence of the ratings agencies, the need to raise the FDIC limits, repeated advice the Federal Reserve to lower the fed funds and prime rate, making the original TARP work by buying toxic assets using zip codes to identify where the worst housing damage was. This is just a partial list of Jim's accurate and meaningful advice to those who were supposed to be in charge of the world's economy. Jim Cramer deserves to be the Power Player of the Year because he used his position at CNBC to try and give survival power to the investor. And because of all the people involved in this unholy mess, he was the only who was 100% right!!
— Lee, Honolulu
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