It’s A Shovel!
When Warren talks, I listen: Buffett says U.S. in recession, stocks not cheap
“I would say, by any commonsense definition, we are in a recession,” [billionaire investor Warren] Buffett said on CNBC.
But Buffett said it’s not clear how far the recession will go because that is difficult to predict.
The technical definition of a recession most economists use is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the nation’s gross domestic product.
The guy has made billions investing money based on his reading of the economy. He understands that Republicans are bad for the economy, as are tax cuts for the extremely wealthy. When Arnold Schwartzenegger asked Mr. Buffet for advice about California’s deficit, Mr. Buffet, who owns a home in California, told him to raise property taxes because they were unreasonably low.
5 comments
Heh… I am sure LadyMin will have something to say about this! 😉 😀 When she wakes up that is.
So… My question is, if Buffett is so economically wise, and think tax cuts for the wealthy are bad, and given that he’s made a ton of money based on his understanding of economics, what does that say about all the wealthy crooks that think tax breaks and all the other shenanigans are a great thing? And how did they make all their money then if they don’t have the same economic understanding as Buffett? Or is is simple a case of two sides of the coin? I mean, Buffett makes his billions being smart and savvy, they others make theirs being crooks that would steal a milk bottle from a baby if they can make a nickel on it? Hmmm… I think that describes Gates, so… yeah!
I have a headache now. 😐
Buffet looks at the long term and doesn’t just make money, he keeps it. He doesn’t want to make money for a quarter or a year, he wants to make it for a decade.
Anyone can get lucky and win the lottery, like having your software selected by IBM, but Buffet makes money consistently. His profits aren’t dependent on a lot of people going crazy and bidding up the price of a stock. they are based on the dividends that stock continues to pay for years. He is an investor, not a gambler.
One of the points he has made in the past is that if you are buying or selling based on taxes, you don’t know enough about what you are buying and selling. Of course, he only pays long-term capital gains taxes, because he only invests for the long term.
LadyMin wasn’t sleeping… her network is down! Now she has to spend tonight troubleshooting.
Anyway…
I agree about Warren Buffett. He is a value investor. He does his research and only buys after he has determined the intrinsic value of a company. And he never buys a company if he doesn’t understand their business. Around Y2K time he made that comment about tech stocks and why Berkshire Hathaway doesn’t hold them.
Of course Buffett is right about being in a recession. I’m sure he knew it was coming a year ago. Heck, I predicted that we were entering it back in the 3rd quarter 2007, before the R word was even being spoken.
As for all those other wealthy guys… mostly crooks. Ya know, like Enron.
Schwartzenegger can’t do anything about property taxes in light of Prop. 13.
I’m fairly certain we went negative in November, based on what wasn’t stocked for the Christmas season and the almost immediately start of sales after Halloween. Retail was panicked, with good reason. The stores down here were never crowded with merchandise or customers.
Proposition 13 makes it difficult, but not impossible to raise property taxes, and it could be modified by another initiative, but no one has the guts to do it.