Can we please read the fine print and learn?

A friend recently shared how her dad says that whenever things head south, there's always a way to make money. Enter poster child Warren Buffett.

Just days after buying $5 billion of Goldman Sachs ("perpetual preferred" stock...ah....), Buffett shows he has a soft spot for those kinds of shares and buys $3B more of GE's.

The perpetual preferred stock carries a dividend of 10 percent, and can be repurchased after three years, at a 10 percent premium. Berkshire Hathaway will also receive warrants to buy $3 billion of common stock at $22.25 within the next five years.

So when Americans becry a "bailout" I wish they could do some Buffett primering. Specifically, there are bailouts...and then there are deals. Congress needs to strike the latter. Unfortunately, these involve a bit more complexity than the average person has an appetite for (dangling preposition and all).