Saturday, April 30, 2011

An Asinine Comment from Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, who notoriously does not leverage his stock purchases, thinks the government should leverage even further its operations.

Buffett said he expects the Congress to raise the nation's debt ceiling before it expires in mid-May, and said it would be that body's "most asinine act" ever if it failed, reports Reuters.

Any increase in the Federal debt will, of course, mean more buying of Treasury securities by the Fed. Buffett seems to understand this. He, further said, as part of his comment on raising the debt limit that:
the United States is not going to have a debt crisis of any kind as long as we keep issuing our notes in our own currency
Yet, bizarrely he down played the importance of gold, which can protect against such Fed money printing.

5 comments:

  1. Doesn't Buffett use the "float" from Berkshire's insurance company operations to leverage some of his investments? Perhaps that's why he might be comfortable having the government leverage up to even more ridiculous levels. The only difference is that Buffett may magnify his returns with the float and never have anything akin to a margin call as long as his insurance risks are managed properly, but having more government debt fueling wasteful spending is just plain asinine.

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  2. Buffet really is a stupid man with just one ability. He has the intellect of a little boy and he thinks government is our mommy and daddy.

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  3. What's bizarre?

    That's the thinking of the establishment...and Buffett is establishment.

    Debt without end, Amen...

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  4. We need to get deficit spending under control, but it isn't going to happen immmediately, and I'd hate to see us lose our reserve currency status and have our dollar lose value even faster than it already is. We can probably increase the debt limit a tad more until 2012 and then if the republicans win all 3 branches, maybe, maybe, maybe they will get spending under control. Personally I think they'll first pass a bunch of idiotic religious laws like outlawing abortion and allowing prayer in schools, etc, but maybe they'll eventually pull their heads out of their a$$e$ and do something about the deficit, but of course not likely until they've given payback to the big corporations, banks, wall street fat cats, billionaires, etc for the money they have given to them under the table.

    Personally, I'm hoping a truly benevolent dictator will run for president in '12 and win. It's possible it could happen if things are bad enough and they are getting there. First act will probably have to be putting the congress in prison if they don't step down and go home peacefully. It would be fun to watch.

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  5. One man's benevolent dictator is another man's tyrant. Be careful what you wish for Anonymous 3:24AM.

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