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Posted: Thu, Feb 7 2008, 10:19 am EST Post subject: Buffett: Bank woes are "poetic justice" |
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Buffett: Bank woes are "poetic justice"
Thu Feb 7, 2008 10:00am EST
By Wojtek Dabrowski
TORONTO (Reuters) - The woes in the U.S. financial sector are "poetic justice" for bankers who designed and sold complex investments that have since gone sour, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on Wednesday.
The head of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (BRKb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) group of companies also played down worries about a credit crunch by saying that recent interest rate cuts mean low-cost funds are readily available.
But he warned that the U.S. dollar will continue to slide unless the country can rein in its yawning trade deficit -- the "biggest factor" behind the decline. Still, he said, the U.S. economy will "do very well over time."
Buffett, one of the world's wealthiest people, appeared to see irony in the fact that many of the banks who marketed complex investments which have now crashed are bearing much of the fallout.
"It's sort of a little poetic justice, in that the people that brewed this toxic Kool-Aid found themselves drinking a lot of it in the end," he said.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0631767220080207 |
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Posted: Thu, Feb 7 2008, 5:17 pm EST Post subject: Re: Buffett: Bank woes are "poetic justice" |
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I like "THE QUOTABLE WARREN BUFFETT: WORDS OF WISDOM FROM THE ORACLE OF OMAHA" at the end of the page:
Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.
You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.
In my view, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.
Over the years, a number of very smart people have learned the hard way that a long stream of impressive numbers multiplied by a single zero always equals zero.
The market is there only as a reference point to see if anybody is offering to do anything foolish.
When we invest in stocks we invest in businesses.
Diversification is a protection against ignorance. [ It] makes very little sense for those who know what they're doing. |
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