If any multi-billionaire can be said to be respected by progressives, it would probably be Warren Buffett. Which is why a recent exposé published by the Seattle Times and the Center For Public Integrity (diary here) was so jarring, documenting as it did alleged predatory lending practices by Berkshire Hathaway's (i.e., Buffett's) Clayton Homes division, the nation's largest mobile home manufacturer and retailer and an interlocking network of lenders also owned by Berkshire Hathway - practices which the ST/CPI report argues have the effect of loading low-income, poor-credit mobile home purchasers with obviously unaffordable high-interest loans that are all but guaranteed to go underwater and/or to quickly lead to default and repossession by Buffett's firm.
Equally jarring is Buffett's response to these charges, delivered both via a Berkshire Hathaway statement and from the Oracle of Omaha's own lips at the just-concluded annual Berkshire Hathway sharholders' love-in.