Warren Buffett says economy fell off a cliff

news.yahoo.com...

He predicted that unemployment will likely climb a lot higher before the recession is done

It's fallen off a cliff," Buffett said Monday during a live appearance on cable network CNBC. "Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven't seen."

[edit on 9-3-2009 by j2000]

reply to post by j2000


It would be nice if you'd post your own opinion on the subject. As far as i'm concerned, i don't trust billionaires, nor do i trust goverments. And i sure don't trust the media either. What people need to do is step back and evaluate in a non subjective way what is going on. We need to stay objective.

I like how they still call it a recession. So how long will we be in Depression before they come out and say it. It took them a year with recession.

Warren Buffett says economy fell off a cliff

Really?

I think it was pushed....

It's fallen off a cliff," Buffett said Monday during a live appearance on cable network CNBC. "Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven't seen."

Buffett said the changes are reflected in the results of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s subsidiaries. He said Berkshire's jewelry companies have suffered, but more people have been willing to switch to Geico to save money on car insurance. The three-hour-long interview aired from another Berkshire subsidiary that has been hampered by the economy, the Nebraska Furniture Mart store in Omaha.

He predicted that unemployment will likely climb a lot higher before the recession is done, but he also reiterated his optimistic long-term view: "Everything will be all right. We do have the greatest economic machine that man has ever created."

From the source.

It most be nice to be able to talk about the hardships in the economy and the how people that has always been responsible having to pay for those that were not.

While you sit on that side of the road where the regular Joes don't even have access to it.

reply to post by marg6043


yeah, the poor bastards only had a "profit" of 4.99 billion when Rome was crashing around them......

Overall, Berkshire's 2008 profit of $4.99 billion, or $3,224 per Class A share, was down 62 percent from $13.21 billion, or $8,548 per share, in 2007.

Originally posted by teklordz
reply to post by j2000

 

What people need to do is step back and evaluate in a non subjective way what is going on.

It's not easy for most to really understand what is going on. The economy is complicated, and I don't get it myself, so all I can do is listen to the experts. The problem with that is that the experts don't seem to get it either.

Actually the greed of many of those "experts" That now are giving advise to the new President about how to fix the nation are the same ones that contributed to the mess we are in right now.

The irony.

reply to post by teklordz


My opinion. The whole thing is a contrived setup by the Fed. Res. Bank.

The private Corp with 13 families in charge.

When you make Credit money out of thin air against nothing, what are the bankers loosing? Nothing. With every Mortage they either collect a lot of free profit, or collect real estate that has real value.

The rich are not getting affect too much in this. They love to act like it's a big surprise and they don't know what to do. In reality, they pumped up the profits so high, that in the end, even after they lose, they come out ahead.
The Fed. Res. Bankers have done this to us before and will do it again.
It's the biggest scam that has ever been invented. Jefferson and others have told us over the last 200 years what would happen, but we let them anyways.

Americans, and the world for that part, are blind and ignorant to the real world. It would be fairly easy to drop kick these familes in less than a month if everyone would wake up to the fact.

As soon as you mention to someone that the Fed Res Bank is a private company, they get that deer in the headlights look. For the most part they respond, "Well, they are going to do what they want and we have to live by it. We can't do anything about it."

One of every 50 or so will get pissed off. If one in 5 would get pissed off, the others would follow. Shutting them down is already in place.
JFK's order is still in effect. Obama could just print money and put them out of buisness. In fact they could print ahead of time and flush the system. You could use the banks in place and change the rules slightly for a transistion period that would be short.

You could set up an exchange rate, on a curve that give anything under 500k a boost and anything over a billion a cut. This would bring back the middle class strong out of the gate.

I am a Constitutionalists and a Conserative, but I also see how we can take care of the poor, as in give them the opportunity, but not a complete free ride.
Anyone, that cannot take care of themselves, should be helped.

Our system of hard work pays off needs to come back. Right now it's the one's that don't work hard that get more.

reply to post by j2000


Very interesting reply. I would like to add that any system that has money involved cannot and will never work, because the human nature is unpredictable. Greed, power, etc. are the biggest problem of unconscious people. As long as people are unaware of the real problem, the manipulation of the few will continue and will bring us further and further down the rabbit hole.

"if you take the blue pill, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. If you take the red pill, you stay in wonderland and i show you how deep the rabbit hole goes" The Matrix.

He also said that the best times for america are yet to come, but that of course is left out of this conversation.

My question is where has he been? How good of an economist is he if he's just now realizing this? I mean, maybe he should have gotten an ATS membership and we could have told him this at least a year ago.

Unemployment has risen a few percentage points from chronically high levels.

For an honest assessment see the charts here:
www.shadowstats.com...

The Shadow Government Statistics (SGS) numbers look more realistic to me.

I'd like to see the numbers for the early '90s myself. Undoubtably unemployment was as bad or worse than 1982.

I don't really believe the economy ever fully recovered from the Great Depression before sliding into a protracted silent depression in the 1973-1992 period. The current Silent depression is about to become very noisy.

From today's CNBC interview:

"There is an 8th grade investing class who ask if it's ok to invest in Gold."

Buffett: "I can't see a person digging up a metal in South Africa to store in a vault underground."

****

2000 market top - to date:

Berkshire Hathaway - +24.098% (non-inflation adjusted).

Gold - +322.62%

****

Whenever I hear someone proclaim the gigantic profits they're booking by following one of the popular marketeers - whether it's a Buffet, or an aspiring legend-in-his-own-mind internet blogger...I know what's coming eventually > Tar & Feathers. All of these oracles have their individual blind spots, biases, and an innate a very human vulnerability to ego & greed.

The market's task is to pick the pockets of the retail investor - and it will. Imo, the only way to profit long-term is to educate oneself, avoid group-think, and take personal responsibility for losses as well as gains.

Follow gurus at your own risk.

GL

I watched this interview, and was not pleased. It is my opinion that he lied a lot during this interview. The worst one was when he said "now is a good time to be in the banking business."

From what I saw, he really thinks that it will get much worse, but he has to be a cheerleader due to political/financial reasons.

About the only time I didn't feel he was lieing was when he said "10 to 20 years from now things will be great." That comforts me so much.

Buffett's Berkshire's 2008 profit was down 62 percent from 2007.

Berkshire's fourth-quarter numbers were even worse. Buffett's company reported net income down 96 percent from a year earlier.

so now even the rich are getting poorer.

How are we going to pay off the Trillions that are owed?

Maybe sell D.C or Calif? How much could we get for a couple aircraft carriers and some nukes?