Warren Buffett on Charlie Rose must watch/read

[clifp]

I just finished watching Charlie Rose interview Warren Buffet. I must say I felt much better about the future of the country after watching it. I urge everyone to read the transcripts or watch the show (when it is available).

His analogy they we have a super athlete who had an heartache, and the most important thing the paramedics can do is revive the patient not argue about did his diet cause the problem, or should the defibulator be placed 1/4" of inch up or down.

He made two essential points; first this action is not for Wall St., rather patient lying on the floor is the US economy, and secondly this isn't a bailout rather it is an investment. He said the he personally would be willing to take 1% ($7 billion) of the 700 billion package if he could get the profits. Finally, he pointed out with everyone frantic to deleverage the US treasury is the only institute in the world they can provide this liquidity.

I also continue to be impressed with how sharp the guy is at 78, his command of the facts and figures of the economy is impressive.

[ChrisC]

He had a great line regarding the bailout and the idea that Government must intervene as opposed to unfettered free market economics taking care of this situation: "I'd rather be approximately right than precisely wrong."

In another thread, someone asked you why can't the private sector buy the troubled assets. If there were a way, I'd buy the assets too. But to a certain extent, people are buying these assets indirectly, even in the face of the toxicity surrounding them. Buffet buys $5 billion of equity in Goldman; others buy $10 billion in JP Morgan for capital as it acquires tons of these assets from WaMU; and you can likely expect another $10-12 billion in Citi-Wachovia merger. And lets not forget, JP Morgan Chase paid $4 billion for Countrywide.

Again, there are some things that only the Government can do -- it's precisely why we have a Federal Reserve System and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Management, oversight, and lubrication of the financial infra-structure is one of those things.

[Rich_in_Tampa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp Iwe have a super athlete who had an heartache.

Anyone else feel a country western ballad coming on...

[Bikerdude]

Great interview. He had another great line when they were talking about derivatives. Buffet: "Beware of geeks bearing formula's".

[tmm99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp Iwe have a super athlete who had an heartache. Anyone else feel a country western ballad coming on... __________________ Rich Tampa, FL (10% retired)

Warren Buffet actually said "heart attack", not "heartache", but you probably already knew that.

tmm

[MasterBlaster]

If you had problems linking to the interview (as I did) here is a link to the transcipt of the interview:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/26982338/page/2/

[clifp]

Yup heart attack, not heart ache. I am always funniest when I am not trying.

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp I just finished watching Charlie Rose interview Warren Buffet. I must say I felt much better about the future of the country after watching it. I urge everyone to read the transcripts or watch the show (when it is available). His analogy they we have a super athlete who had an heartache, and the most important thing the paramedics can do is revive the patient not argue about did his diet cause the problem, or should the defibulator be placed 1/4" of inch up or down. He made two essential points; first this action is not for Wall St., rather patient lying on the floor is the US economy, and secondly this isn't a bailout rather it is an investment. He said the he personally would be willing to take 1% ($7 billion) of the 700 billion package if he could get the profits. Finally, he pointed out with everyone frantic to deleverage the US treasury is the only institute in the world they can provide this liquidity. I also continue to be impressed with how sharp the guy is at 78, his command of the facts and figures of the economy is impressive.

I watched most of the interview. He does put things in very simple terms for the clueless, like myself. Although he was upbeat and made me feel better about the future, he did say in the early portion of the interview that a depression is not totally out of the picture. That certainly is not comforting to hear. But I guess he was driving home the point that the government can not sit on the side lines and do nothing. He basically said the bailout package was not perfect, but was needed.

[Nords]

Charlie Rose gets away with more bad interviewer behavior than anyone else I've ever seen. Interrupting, talking over, wrenching the conversation over to something he'd rather talk about... it's a good thing that those guys seem to be good friends.

Buffett's been using some of these one-liners for years ("financial weapons of mass destruction") but I liked the ones he tossed off during this interview:

"Charlie, with your money and my brains, we could make a lot of profits!"

The concept of "social proof"-- your neighbor's doing all these things, he's getting rich, and your wife's getting pretty unhappy with you that you're not doing the same. You know it shouldn't work but it does. If it's working for him then it must be OK to have it work for you.

"The woman who empties my wastebasket pays more in tax (15.3% payroll tax) than I do when I pay my 15% capital gains tax on my investment."

The three "I"s: innovators, imitators, & idiots

"If you're the rescue crew then don't stand there and llecture the great athlete (the American economy) when he's in cardiac arrest (frozen credit markets) on the floor, and don't quibble over where to put the defibrillator paddles. Make a choice to get the athlete off the floor now while dealing with future inflation later."

"Why should I leave Cinderella's ball at 11:45 when I can leave at 11:58? The only problem is that there aren't any clocks on the wall…"

"Beware of geeks bearing formulas"...

"Trying to invest through a committee of 535 people is a tough job" (referring to Congress' bailout legislation)

"The human animal doesn't get a lot smarter"

"People love leverage-- when it's working"

(I tried to keep up, but any errors or inaccuracies are my fault!)

[retire@40]

I saw the interview last night. Buffett is a smart financial guy with good communication skills and I agree with almost everything he said.

I disagree with him about his tax comments though. We already have government wealth redistribution in this country which already borders on the unfair side and he wants to make it more unfair by taking more from the rich and giving it to the poor.

I am neither rich nor poor, so his policy would not directly affect me, but there is something that bothers me about the government artificially ripping money out of the hands of one person and handing it to another.

[John23]

Buffett is brilliant, not just financially, but as a communicator. He always uses analogies and metaphors so well.

Although he glosses over many of the problems in this country....always maintaining his folksy, rose colored glasses view of the economy.

-He doesn't mention....the US dollar became the worlds reserve currency in the 20th century, that gave us a *slight* advantage in the world, and we get to live on everyone elses money. But what happens when we run up our tab too much?

-He always speaks in such broad terms. Sure, our standard of living is up. But for the last 20 or 30 years, people have had to take 2 or 3 jobs to do that.

But some great quotes...especially..."people don't get smarter about things as basic as greed".

And the concept of leverage and borrowed money. So simple, but so profound. The only way smart people go broke is through borrowed money. People are so busy using leverage, that they don't realize it.

[Orchidflower]

Boy! Nords, do I ever agree with you. Waaaay before Charlie Rose became a national interviewer, he was on something like "Good morning, Chicago." He impressed me as such a bad interviewer, so gloomy, so dull (brilliant but dull) that I actually spoke with the t.v. station's executive about it at a party I went to. Rose put you to sleep, really. How the heck did he get up so high? Must be his brains, because it surely isn't his wonderfully upbeat interviewing style.

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John23 And the concept of leverage and borrowed money. So simple, but so profound. The only way smart people go broke is through borrowed money. People are so busy using leverage, that they don't realize it.

So true. One reason I sold my company stock and retired early. My business partners just rubber stamped every spending project the CEO would bring to the table. Going to be interesting to see how the credit squeeze affects their credit line.

Thanks for reminding why it was prudent to ER.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dawg52 Thanks for reminding why it was prudent to ER.

"Survivor guilt"...

[irajones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp I just finished watching Charlie Rose interview Warren Buffet. I must say I felt much better about the future of the country after watching it. I urge everyone to read the transcripts or watch the show (when it is available). His analogy they we have a super athlete who had an heartache, and the most important thing the paramedics can do is revive the patient not argue about did his diet cause the problem, or should the defibulator be placed 1/4" of inch up or down. He made two essential points; first this action is not for Wall St., rather patient lying on the floor is the US economy, and secondly this isn't a bailout rather it is an investment. He said the he personally would be willing to take 1% ($7 billion) of the 700 billion package if he could get the profits. Finally, he pointed out with everyone frantic to deleverage the US treasury is the only institute in the world they can provide this liquidity. I also continue to be impressed with how sharp the guy is at 78, his command of the facts and figures of the economy is impressive.

Great post. With all of this talk about the coming of the next depression I have been a little too pessimistic lately. It is so refreshing to get some real insight from someone who has years of financial and business experience and who isn't tied into the media speak. It seems like the media gets a kick out of creating a new crisis whenever they can.

[Caroline]

Partner and I have wondered about the Charlie Rose thing before.

Conclusion is that even though he sucks, he has people on we want to see, some of whom we can't see anywhere else.

[oma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orchidflower Boy! Nords, do I ever agree with you. Waaaay before Charlie Rose became a national interviewer, he was on something like "Good morning, Chicago." He impressed me as such a bad interviewer, so gloomy, so dull (brilliant but dull) that I actually spoke with the t.v. station's executive about it at a party I went to. Rose put you to sleep, really. How the heck did he get up so high? Must be his brains, because it surely isn't his wonderfully upbeat interviewing style.

Different strokes.....
I enjoy Charlie Rose's interviews.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oma Different strokes..... I enjoy Charlie Rose's interviews.

I enjoy the people he attracts to the show, but I can't believe that he gets away with his bad-host alpha-male behavior. Guests must put up with the franchise to get the publicity.

It's not as if Rose is ever going to stop. FIL used to do audio for his show in the 1980s. He and the other technicians used to kid Charlie Rose that they really enjoyed hanging out on his yacht last weekend, and that they were sorry about the mess. The joke was on Charlie Rose for spending so much time at work that he couldn't remember the last time he'd been on his yacht, let alone whether the technicians had broken into it last weekend.

[clifp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oma Different strokes..... I enjoy Charlie Rose's interviews.

I think he is the best interviewer on TV. I agree his manner aren't the best but compared to O'Reilly, he acts like the top graduate of a charm school.

Mostly I think he is a great interviewer because he asked great questions. He interviewed Kid Rock a few nights ago, Kid is funny but far from my favorite comedian. So I was also set to go to bed, but then Charlie started asking him about comedy, how do you explain great timing, how do you change your act to play in different country. Kid gave thoughtful and yes funny answers.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp He interviewed Kid Rock a few nights ago, Kid is funny but far from my favorite comedian. So I was also set to go to bed, but then Charlie started asking him about comedy, how do you explain great timing, how do you change your act to play in different country. Kid gave thoughtful and yes funny answers.

I also think Kid is hilarious, but I don't think he intends to be. Do you maybe mean Chris?