Archive for the ‘Opportunity’ Category
Investors, take heart: Warren Buffett sees investment opportunities in the U.S. stock and bond markets, and believes widespread financial turmoil from the credit crunch is behind us.
![[photo]](https://i0.wp.com/s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MI-AQ222_BERKSH_20080504181136.jpg) |
| All eyes were on Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb. |
Speaking to reporters Sunday, a day after Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual fan-fest for shareholders at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb., both Mr. Buffett, 77 years old, and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 84, criticized regulators, politicians and accountants for lax oversight of financial institutions that are at the center of the subprime-mortgage crisis, and, according to Mr. Munger, were guilty of “deep conflicts of interest.”
“The regulators and the accountants have failed us terribly,” Mr. Munger said, adding that mark-to-market accounting rules are necessary but can obscure other problems within a company.
This year at Mr. Buffett’s annual gathering for shareholders — often called “Woodstock for Capitalists” — 31,000 Buffett enthusiasts were serenaded by Fruit of the Loom minstrels, enjoyed samples of Berkshire portfolio companies such as Dilly Bars and watched artist Michael Israel speed-paint a Buffett portrait with Benjamin Moore paints.
![[chart]](https://i0.wp.com/s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MI-AQ224_BERKSH_20080504202021.gif)
Mr. Buffett credited the Federal Reserve for helping to avert a more-widespread crisis on Wall Street by orchestrating a bailout of Bear Stearns Cos. that “prevented, in my opinion, the contagion where you’re going to have runs on investment banks.”
Bank losses “aren’t over by a long shot, but a lot of it has already been recognized,” he said, adding that the depth of the housing crisis, unemployment and other economic factors would help determine how long the write-downs continue.
“The idea of financial panic — that has been pretty much taken care of,” he said.
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