News Flash- Buffet Blasts Independents' Fuzzy Logic on Boards

Warren Buffet, in his widely anticipated annual to his Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, blasts fund companies that cheated millions of investors through market timing and late trading, as well as directors who fell short of their duties. Funds are in dire need of "truly independent directors" willing to fire investment managers who overcharge on fees or fail to put shareholder interests first, Buffet said in his report. CEOs of fund companies are grossly overpaid, he added, holding directors, themselves richly paid, to blame. Buffet also referred to the sale of Strong Funds, without naming the firm, as "a travesty." The real "acid test" of whether current investigations into Wall Street will lead to meaningful change, Buffet said, is whether firms are willing to bring the pay scales of their chief executive officers back down in line with reality.