Berkshire’s (BRK.A) made the rounds yesterday. Some of his comments:
For those not sure Berkshire is intimately tied to the consumer through its Shaw Carpets, American Express (AXP), Dairy Queen, Home Services (real estate brokerage), furniture companies, banks and more. Because of that, Berkshire is uniquely sensitive to all sectors of the economy. So, when Buffett says he is seeing little improvement, it is something we all need to pay attention to. Quote may not be 100% accurate verbally but are for sentiment. For instance, “we” rather than “us” etc….meaning of quotes intact.
“We are setting the stage for VERY SIGNIFICANT inflation down the road”
On US Dollar: “probability of significant purchasing power decline has risen dramatically”
US AAA Rating: “the US will keep it as long as I and you (Liz Claymen) are alive and longer”
Unemployment: “it is going higher, we are not coming off the bottom yet”..
Obama’s health care reform: “malpractice premiums are 1/2 of 1% of what we (the US) spend on health care each year”
Regulation: “the wrong regulation would be one that attempts to solves evils and stifles the markets system that has worked pretty well over the years”
Acknowledged he is sitting on a $1 billion profit from his Goldman Sachs (GS) investment and said he will “keep the warrants for their duration”
On the de-leveraging process for consumers and corporate America “there is a lot still to do”
“Economy will be in shambles this year and well beyond”
“you can’t produce a baby in 1 month by getting 9 women pregnant”. Meaning we can’t turn the economy around in a couple months, it is a long process and gov’t officials would be wise to acknowledge this.
Should Ben Bernanke be given another term?: “I don’t know how you could do any better”
“The incentives in a market system are too overshoot” and he gave the impression he was relatively sure it would happen again some day.
“I do not worry about deflation a all and we will not see any serious deflation….”
On Gov’t TARP funds & Wells Fargo (WFC) “the gov’t set the terms, they (WFC) just signed a blank piece of paper”
On Steve Jobs “if any CEO is facing serious surgery, it is a material event”
Cap and Trade: “is a regressive tax”
Disclosure (“none” means no position):Long WFC, None
3 replies on “Notes on Buffett’s Media Tour”
Yet when he says that GGP's assets are worth LESS THAN its liabilities, you dismiss it. Isn't this applying a double standard to your hero worship?
"today, their properties in my view wouldn't bring $27 billion."
I think the word "today" is pretty important. Todd would probably agree with that statement. He has cited numerous times what kind of bloodbath a liquidation would be.
anon #1
"hero worship"? i have been openly critical of buffett here numerous times. there is no one i agree with all the time…i hope the same for you…
GGP… do not care what they are worth today….it is next yr. when the 11 gets settled that matters
Anon#2
you are correct
Both of you..
get a blogger id, i'm not paying much attention to these anon comments anymore. can't get a good conversation flow going although i'm pretty anon#1 has no intention of doing that and would rather just hide…and snipe…