Warren Buffett says the US economy says the economy is not getting worse, nor is it getting better, but has "hit a plateau at bottom."
"We have not bounced but we've quit going down," Buffett, the 79-year-old chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said today in an interview on CNBC.
"We're through the worst of it in residential real estate in all probability," Buffett said today, adding that he doesn't expect a "double-dip" recession.
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Buffett, known as the "Oracle of Omaha," told a conference in California that his company was buying equities because "I am getting a lot for my money."
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"We're gonna have unusual losses in credit cards and in commercial real estate" in the economy, Buffett said today. "But we're a lot better off than we were a year ago. I mean for one thing, some of the toxic assets have been flushed through. There's been capital raised."
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Buffett reiterated his praise for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Treasury Department Secretary Timothy Geithner and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, calling them "heroes" for their management of the economy since last year.
"You can look back and say you could have done this a little differently or that a little differently, but at the time I called it an economic Pearl Harbor and in the end we got through Pearl Harbor," Buffett said. "And it could have turned out a lot differently."
Buffett on Bailouts and the Crisis
Buffett on Heroes and a Second Downturn
Buffett on Lehman and Last Year
Sources: Bloomberg | CNBC
The bank bail outs were not a good scheme, it is a tremendous waste of tax payer money. These "heroes" are simply trying to save a rotten system, a financial system which will continue to be a drain on our economy for a long time to come.
With all due respect to nice guy Buffett and I do mean that, he is thoroughly conditioned by our our financial system and has spent his life and made billions working in it, so he can't really expected be that objective.
The banks should have been allowed to go into receivership and the stock holders wiped out and the stimulus package should have been directed to creating jobs by building the infrastructure, education, retraining, etc. This would have served the same purpose that the bank bail outs are supposed to serve, that is, stimulate the economy. Furthermore, it would have been a worthwhile investment in the future of our country. Instead we are supporting the same short sighted, quick profit, bozos that helped get us into the mess.
We are going to be here a long time folks.