Two seemingly unrelated investment stories roused the press and the public this week.

Warren Buffett’s reputation as a financial prophet has been tarnished in the past year, as Berkshire Hathaway’s value has plummeted, dropping by almost $12 billion in 2008.

Warren Buffett, who generally knows a deal when he sees one, announced yesterday that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, would invest $5 billion in beleaguered Goldman Sachs.

The Oracle of Omaha, speaking to reporters yesterday after Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, predicted that the credit crunch may have passed its low point.

Warren Buffett has followed the dealings of the Pritzker family for half a century, but he had never had a direct business connection to them. . .until now.

While controversial tech entrepreneur Vinod Gupta
widely cultivates political alliances around the country, he stays
close to home when he picks board members for his Omaha-based company,
infoUSA.

Six of the company’s eight directors, including Gupta, have strong ties to Omaha or Nebraska, a Muckety analysis shows. A seventh is a name partner in a law firm that did more then $1 million in business with infoUSA last year.

Truly independent directors are a key to responsible corporate governance, experts say. If directors are too close to a CEO, they can’t properly oversee his actions.

Gupta’s lavish spending on his political connections, including naming buildings after Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton in one of his India projects, have caused a backlash. Some infoUSA shareholders sued Gupta for wasting company money.