Building Berkshire
Buffett, 83, became the world’s fourth-richest person by building Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. into a $289 billion business. As the company’s chairman, chief executive officer and largest shareholder, he transformed a failing textile maker into a firm operating in industries from insurance to railroads.
The Dodd-Frank Act may limit future leaders from taking the steps that Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson did in 2008 to calm markets, Buffett said. The officials injected billions of dollars into insurer American International Group Inc. and the largest banks, while backstopping money- market funds as the financial system teetered.
“I worry actually that Congress doesn’t like to give anybody that much authority,” Buffett said. “There will be another panic. Where it comes from, who knows? But when that time comes, the question will be, ‘Are the people who have panicked, who have frozen, who have caused the economic engine to stop, will they believe and come right back and be doing something?’ And I’m not sure whether what’s been enacted is a plus or a minus in that regard.”
First Choice
Buffett stopped short of endorsing Yellen to take over as Fed chairman, during an interview on CNBC prior to the Georgetown event. The billionaire said his top pick for the job is Bernanke, even though he may not want to stay.
“If you’ve got a .400 hitter in the lineup, you don’t take him out,” Buffett told the business news network, referring to a high batting average in baseball. “I don’t have a second choice. I don’t know Janet Yellen at all.”
Buffett, who has committed almost all his wealth to charity, also spoke yesterday about philanthropy during the Georgetown gathering alongside Bank of America Corp. CEO Brian T. Moynihan. Even as the billionaire praised the U.S. economic system, he said inequality needs to be addressed.
“We have learned to turn out lots of goods and services, but we haven’t learned as well how to have everybody share in the bounty,” Buffett said. “The obligation of a society as prosperous as ours is to figure out how nobody gets left too far behind.”