Monday, February 25, 2008

"A little, arrogant trustafarian"

That's the insult hurled at Jamie Johnson by Brian McNally. Johnson is one of the heirs to the Johnson & Johnson fortune; McNally is the family's financial advisor. The occasion was Johnson's filming of a documentary about the inequality of wealth in America, "The One Percent," reported in the Wall Street Journal as The Rich Man's Michael Moore. Johnson "has learned the hard way that the biggest betrayal for the rich is to talk publicly about their riches."

Also learning this lesson the hard way is Nicole Buffett, who appeared in Johnson's earlier film, "Born Rich" discussing life in the Buffett family. She is the adopted daughter of Peter Buffett, and so considers herself (as all ordinary people would) Warren Buffett's granddaughter. Alas, after her film debut Nicole received a letter from Warren informing her that she neither legally nor emotionally has that status.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Warren Buffett's brutal letter to his granddaughter "disadopting" her sounds as if it could have been written by the Daniel Plainview character played by Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood." Plainview, however, could not disadopt his "son," H.W., because he never adopted him in the first place; he just took him. Buffett could not disadopt his granddaughter because once Nicole was adopted by Warren's son, she became Warren's granddaughter and will remain so. The letter was gratuitous cruelty. The faux-folksy Omaha tycoon and the scheming "oilman and family man" of early 20th-century California actually may be found to have several things in common as events continue to unfold--financial shenanigans, phony philanthropy, playing footsie with politicians, betrayed relationships, etc. I doubt that Warren ever has--or will--murder anyone, however.

Anonymous said...

What firm does Brian McNally work for?

Anonymous said...

Affiliated Private Investors