The Clinton tax hikes, engineered by Bob Rubin, helped drive the dollar higher. This is what those in the world of stocks and bonds, like Buffett and Rubin, want. It creates a whirlpool that sucks capital from around the world into the US stock and bond markets. Carried to an extreme, it even helps create financial bubbles like the Clinton bubble, which creates an opportunity for those who are in on the game (e.g., the silicon valley con artists who backed Clinton for this very reason, to make their dot com options valuable).
What has been missed by many is that, in a historic reversal, the Democrat party has become the strong dollar party and the Republican party is the weak dollar party. A complete reversal from the days of William Jennings Bryan.
A moderately weaker dollar is part of a program to relieve the financial distress facing manufacurers and farmers. The Republican base of support is in rural America. The sky high dollar was absolutely killing farmers. A weaker dollar helps hold up commodity prices. Bush knows what he is doing, and so does Buffett. They are just looking out for opposing interests.
In Cali, I expect buffett to advise spending cuts. On a state level the important thing is business climate, and state tax and spending policies have no effect on macro issues dear to buffett's heart like the level of the dollar.
Except California's ability to borrow will be favorably affected if they raise taxes, dont forget.
This would be a good thing certainly, do you have any insight on how Buffet might address the current egregious business un-friendly tax and regulatory policies, I know that he was against the repeal of estate taxes which I found to be astounding coming from someone who owes so much to free-market capitalism.