Posted on 03/07/2005 7:44:04 AM PST by Nachum
Warren Buffett, one of the world's most successful investors, has launched his most withering attack to date on the US trade deficit, describing Americans as "rich spending junkies" who could turn into a nation of "sharecroppers".
In his annual letter to investors in Berkshire Hathaway, the fund he has run for more than 30 years, Mr Buffett painted a bleak picture of a future US in which ownership and wealth had continued to move overseas, leaving the economy in thrallto foreign interests and faced with financial turmoil and political unrest.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Like I'm interested in what some dope smoking parrot head thinks about U.S. Budgetary policy.
Owl_Eagle"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
It's social security and medicare that is doing it. Maybe Buffett needs to have a talk with the leaders of his party, Pelosi, Reid, and Dean, and tell them to stop blocking social security reform.
Yet it's the U.S. that's the problem? Hilarious.
Not to say we don't have problems, but I'd rather have ours than the no-growth Europeans.
I think he's right, but the problem is that he has no solution. He thinks the solution lies in Washington, when in fact, it is Washington which has created the problem.
Betting on the Euro - yeah - that makes alot of sense...
Given the Eurozone has no growth and high unemployment I'd have to think that the Euro is a bad bet. I wonder if idealogical bias is coloring Mr. Buffett's investing.
"Betting on the Euro - yeah - that makes alot of sense..."
No kidding anybody who would have done that over the last couple years only would have made a fortune.
The Chinese haven't quite got the hang of it yet. So long as the planners in Beijing decide how much is going to be invested in infrastruct, as well as everything else, China is going to be living in poverty.
Warren Buffett is right on with his assessment. Don't call me a commie or a leftist, cause I'm not. The good (and bad) news is that it won't take long for you to find out. This will all begin to come to a head over the next 12-18 months.
I remember when we were in danger of Japan ....it was the coming superpower...and we were doomed then too
Wasn't it Warren Buffett who refused to invest in internet stocks, because he saw they were vastly over-hyped and that a crash was inevitable?
I'd pay attention to a man like that.
You might like to see this article.
This could be a misperception on my part, but it seems as if WB is just the 'polite' version of George Soros.
And as far as the 'sharecropper' comment goes, if ANYONE has positioned himself as a 'plantation owner' while everybody else sharecrops for him, its Buffett.
2) Wasn't it Warren Buffett who refused to invest in internet stocks, because he saw they were vastly over-hyped and that a crash was inevitable?
wow, that was pretty acute of him... it's not like anyone else could have figured that out.
see, when he has his dacha and is overseeing a bunch of serfs he will be able to say "i told you so"
"If I'm not comfortable holding a stock for ten years, I don't want to own it for ten minutes."
I suspect this rule -- more than the "over-hyped" nature of the dot-coms, was what kept him away from these internet stocks.
But the serfs will be happy ones! Der Kommissar Buffettnikov will provide them with cable tv! (at a reasonable rate of course)
I think Buffett is getting a little squirrelly in his old age. One thing he doesn't seem to recognize is that the US already has the most well developed capital base in the world. If you've already got more capital than everyone else, you can't expect that there is going to be a net inflow of capital. The opportunities to make a buck using your capital tend to be overseas in that instance (since there is a shortage of capital overseas), so it makes sense that a well-tuned market would send money overseas, which is exactly what it's doing.
Of course, it would be even better if we had the best capital base in the world, and the gap were getting even bigger, but you can't have everything. If Buffett doesn't agree, then I suggest that he should do a better job of running his company, and demonstrate that American business can be even more profitable than it is.
Of course, he's just looking out for the little guy.
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