Warren Buffett said the U.S. tax cut will make companies more valuable by giving owners a bigger share of profits.
“People who own the businesses, they now own 20 percent more of the domestic earnings,” Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in an interview on CNBC Wednesday.
Describing the change as a “big deal,” he gave as an example Berkshire Hathaway’s BNSF Railway.
“The government doesn’t own the assets of the business,” Buffett said. “We own 100 percent of the assets of BNSF, but we don’t own 100 percent of the profits. And we went from 65 to 79 percent of the profits of BNSF and that is a more than 20 percent increase.”
Still, when asked about whether he would have pushed lawmakers to vote for or against the legislation, he chose another route.
“I would have had a different bill,” he said. “If I did it as a representative of Berkshire shareholders, I would have had to vote for it.”
Here are some of his other comments:
On bitcoin:
Buffett said he’s no fan of cryptocurrencies and is confident that the run up in their value is fleeting. “In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say almost with certainty that they will come to a bad ending. Now when it happens, or how or anything else, I don’t know. But I know this: If I could buy a five year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I’d be glad to do it but I would never short a dime’s worth.”
On the stock market: