Last November Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom - "the Nation’s highest civilian honor" - to fifteen individuals. Among artists, human rights activists and athletes, you also have George H. W. Bush (the father) and Angela Merkel. But also Warren Buffett, probably the richest man on earth, who runs Berkshire Hathaway, a company which holds several others, like Wal-Mart, but also Moody's, one of the three largest credit rating agencies. Yes, the one which in the last decade rated AAA many of the securities backed by mortgages (a.k.a. Asset Backed Securities). Of course we now know that these securities were not worth the paper they were signed on and the US government had to step in and buy or guarantee them (not to mention the number of people who lost their homes and can't get in all these emptied houses). But hey, the guy is a philanthropist. Of course he's "made our world a better place".
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