Berkshire is focusing on stocks after its cash hoard swelled and interest rates remained near record lows. Equities markets around the world fell during the third quarter amid speculation that Europe will fail to contain its sovereign debt crisis and that the U.S. economy will weaken.
Buffett, who invested $5 billion in Bank of America, said that troubles at the biggest U.S. lender by assets will take "much longer" to clean up.
"The bank has a wonderful underlying business -- it's got lots of problems," Buffett told Liu in the interview.
"The bet is, is Brian going to get rid of those problems?" Buffett said, referring to Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan, 51. "It won't take six months or a year; it will take much longer than that even. But the underlying business is doing fine."
Bank of America, which has lost more than half its market value this year as mortgage-related costs climb, pays Berkshire $300 million annually in preferred stock dividends and gave the company warrants to purchase 700 million shares of common stock for $7.14 each. The deal was announced on Aug. 25, two weeks after Moynihan said his firm had enough capital.
Moynihan, who has been in charge of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank since the start of 2010, should be given time to turn the firm around, Buffett said.
European Debt Crisis
Berkshire sold most of its European sovereign-debt holdings about a year and a half ago, the billionaire said in an interview with CNBC. The firm isn't interested in helping to bail out lenders on the continent, he said.
"They need capital in their banks, in many of their banks," Buffett said in the Bloomberg interview. "We would not be a good prospect," he said, adding that Berkshire has received "very, very few" calls about putting capital into European banks.
A German reinsurance unit still holds some bonds from that nation, and Berkshire is "fine" with the investment, he said. As for the U.S. economy, Europe's debt crisis is bound to have some fallout, he said.