Berkshire Hathaway’s 89-year-old billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Saturday said the United States’ capacity to withstand crises provides a silver lining as it combats the coronavirus, even as he acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic could significantly damage the economy and his investments.
Jonathan Stempel and Megan Davies for Reuters:
Over more than 4-1/2 hours at the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Buffett said his conglomerate has taken many steps responding to the pandemic, including providing cash to struggling operating units, and throwing in the towel on a multi-billion-dollar bet on U.S. airlines.
Buffett also said he remains keen on making a big acquisition, which he has not done since 2016, but has not provided financial support to companies as he did during the 2008 financial crisis because he saw nothing attractive enough, even after the recent bear market…
The meeting began several hours after Berkshire reported a record $49.75 billion first-quarter net loss, reflecting huge unrealized losses on common stock holdings such as Bank of America Corp and Apple Inc during the market meltdown…
He said Americans have persevered and prospered through such crises as the Civil War in the 1860s, the influenza pandemic a century ago and the Great Depression. American “magic” prevailed before and would do again, he said. “Nothing can stop America when you get right down to it,” Buffett said. “I will bet on America the rest of my life.”
MacDailyNews Take: As he often is, Buffett is right: Nothing can stop America! Berkshire Hathaway is Apple’s biggest shareholder with a 5.4% stake.
America is always stronger when we do things together. — Apple CEO Tim Cook
Geico insurance, a Warren Buffet owned company, is the ONLY major car insurance company NOT giving part refunds. Claims are off 80%, clearly GEICO is just gouging everyone.
The virus cannot stop amerika but it will certainly change it forever. The old is dying. The virus cannot stop the US economy but it is changing it forever: no more economic slavery. The abuse is what is ending.
On this Memorial Day, REMEMBER…
Boy I feel better now…I really thought this would be the end of life as we know it….But a Multi-Billionaire has made me see the light! NOT! STFU Warren. We certainly don’t need you to tell us that America will make it!
Hey Warren, as of this writing 68,606 Americans have been very decidedly stopped.
Between January and April of this year, in a four month span, more than 280,000 people in the United States died of heart disease and more than 210,000 died of cancer.
COVID -19 is weak sauce. Even when they artificially inflate the numbers by adding influenza and other deaths into the total, COVID-19 can’t even manage 1/3rd of cancer deaths or 1/4th of heart disease deaths in the U.S.
COVID-19 is a pussy flu. The “experts” ruined the best economy in decades for nothing.
Do you also enjoy dancing on your granny’s grave?
To answer your weak attempt at deflection from the issue: No.
However, unlike the average Democrat, I can separate emotion from logic and employ rational thought.
People die. Every second of every day. From all sorts of things. Welcome to reality.
If we all hid in our houses like cowards until all of the poor starved to death from the mega depression the “experts” caused, we’d “save” millions from car accidents (and billions of dollars in welfare, btw).
The “experts” ruined the best economy in decades for nothing.
As I have been saying here since February, I understand that public policy on Covid-19 has to be driven by a cost/benefit analysis. I was a prosecutor (and legal advisor to dozens of elected officials) for thirty years, so I made those judgments every day. I knew that some of my decisions would cost lives. I learned to live with it, but never to treat the responsibility casually.
Where we disagree is on whether the benefits of saving the American economy by avoiding any decisions that would have cost jobs or impacted stock prices would have justified the cost of that policy—hundreds of thousands of American lives.
I guess the right to life does not apply to postborn human beings. They should have been sacrificed without a qualm because nothing mattered except sustaining the bull market until early November.
TxUser – where does ones right to life end and another individual’s rights to make a living and provide for their family begin?
In 1968 we were hit by the Hong Kong Flu… 100,000 dead – mainly over 65 years old.. How did the boomers react? They went to Woodstock! Now that their lives on the line, it is time to be responsible? It wasn’t just the bombers. The country did NOT shut down back then.
A two or three week shutdown made sense when the fatalities were project to be in the 2 million range. What we have now more like a bad flu season. Take NYC and there surrounding counties off the table and the rate plummets. NYC could not be bother to shut down the virus factory they call the subway, close their parks, or protect the people in nursing homes but we are suppose to lock down North Dakota to make them feel safer. Quarantine the high rate areas if they want, but let the rest of the country go back to work.
I don’t read dispute of the figures posted by @Brutal Truth. Obvious you cannot spin facts the typical USER way.
What I do read is snide mocking of the facts which clearly indicates you don’t like it, GOOD.
Obvious this type of rational thinking does not help your número uno cause to vote our great tireless worker president, flaws and all, out of office.
I just read on the news two days ago back in my home state in the Top 5 of virus case numbers — the death rate compared to the population is less than 0.01%. Also read worldwide the figure is slightly higher, but still well under 1%.
Guess reality is finally settling in and the “sky is falling” Spanish Flu comparison warnings you pimped for weeks is settling down and coming home to roost…
Covid-19 was the leading cause of death in the United States in several recent weeks. It is weak sauce only if you put cancer and heart disease in that same category.
It is also out of control in Russia. Has anybody else noticed that GeoB’s attempts to drive a wedge between Americans are usually posted at about 0430 EDT, which is midday in Moscow.
TxUser, apt name, your posts are classic Political Demagoguery 101.
“ dem·a·gog·uer·y
/ˈdeməˌɡäɡ(ə)rē/
noun
1 political activity or practices that seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.”the demagoguery of political opportunists”
I will go further, when you can’t answer or dispute factual points by @Brutal Truth or GoeB, you reflexively DEFLECT to Politics 101 and change the PREMISE of the argument. This happens daily on CNN.
Not only are you a MASTER of this technique if they ever establish a Pulitzer Prize for DISINFORMATION I would write a college length thesis to nominate you and seek a friendly brief from CNN and The New York Times.
Now, onto your non-answer, answer deflections. Thank you Ben Bradley for the classic inspiration during the Watergate years.
“Covid-19 was the leading cause of death in the United States in several recent weeks. It is weak sauce only if you put cancer and heart disease in that same category.”
Recent weeks? Such cherry picked horror! 😱 The only thing that is “weak” is I was not talking about recent weeks, heart disease, cancer or categories! 🤨
“It is also out of control in Russia.”
President Donald J. Trump in collusion is responsible! /s
“Has anybody else noticed that GeoB’s attempts to drive a wedge between Americans are usually posted at about 0430 EDT, which is midday in Moscow.”
My God man — you exposed me to the world! I was wondering why Mueller’s office has been trying to contact me for over a month now. Do you have the phone number of Bill Clinton’s attorney that got him off for a myriad of transgressions against women for decades? Thanks in advance! Sarcasm tag not necessary.
USER THEME SONG PARODY INSPIRED BY THE KING:
Why am I so doubtful whenever you are out of sight…
WooHoo…
Deflection… torments my heart
Deflection… keeps us apart
Deflection… why torture me
As you continue to demagogue, obfuscate and change the premise of posts you cannot answer to and proceed to DEFLECT to your favored hidden agenda — I will continue to CALL YOU OUT until Election Day 2020..
You SHOULD REMEMBER that… 😎🇺🇸🦅
Ok, since you ignored the last two or three times that I addressed the facts, let us do it yet again. Your basic premise is that the coronavirus is no big deal and we should all follow the President’s suggestion to ignore it and go back to work. To suggest otherwise is to perpetrate a Democrat, liberal, and media hoax.
According to First 2014 and your other experts, the leading cause of death in America in 2019 was heart disease, which killed 647,457 people. Assuming that rate continued in 2020, 1769 persons per day are dying from that cause.
Last Friday, 2909 Americans died of COVID-19. If numbers mean anything, that makes coronavirus the current leading cause of death. Hardly “just a blip.”
First etc. lists influenza and pneumonia combined as 55,672, which would be 152 per day. How is something that kills almost 3000 people a day just a “mild version” of something that is currently killing almost 20 times fewer people?
There is a further issue. The CDC figures for COVID-19 list only individuals (and bodies) that a physician has seen and personally judged to have died as a result of coronavirus infection. The reported figures for most other diseases are estimates, not actual counts. If flu deaths were reported using the same criteria as for COVID-19, there would only have been from 3500 to 13,500 deaths reported in each of the past six flu seasons.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-covid-19-deaths-to-flu-deaths-is-like-comparing-apples-to-oranges/
That is a maximum of only 38 per day averaged across a year. To repeat, 2909 Americans died of Covid-19 in one day last week.
No matter how many times you and the President suggest that it is no worse than the seasonal flu, the comparison is never going to be accurate. To the extent that the argument persuades others to drop social distancing, it is an incitement to homicide (and suicide, but at least the people who foolishly kill themselves had the chance to stay safe.)
That is the truth. It is not a diversion. It is not a deflection. Your repeated insistence that COVID-19 deaths are “just a blip” is a lie that has killed thousands of people and looks likely to kill thousands more.
Lunch in Moscow, comrade!
Wow, Is that the best FANTASY you got?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
No, the best I have is the truth that I have done my best to combat your lies. The deaths that you and your like have caused and will cause are not on my conscience. Unlike some I could name, I have a conscience that would keep me up at night if I was as callous about the loss of life as you and your comrades.
You are so dishonest and you always want to have the last word to people who challenge your 🐂💩, ego boy. Don’t burn the burgers on this Memorial Day, oh right it’s tofu…🤣🇺🇸🦅
Correction: more than 1,000,000 US citizens have been stopped from infectious and non-infectious causes. The C19 issue is just a blip Death wise and will prove to be even a smaller blip when the numbers are corrected for accuracy. Stop the fake panic and get back to work.
Amen! 👍🏻🙏🏻
You have one third of the world infections
You have the highest level of the world”s deaths
You are ignoring everything and will be going out to essential services like tattoo parlors.
You continue to praise Trump.
You Stupidly continue to compare numbers to non-infectious diseases
You don’t care about the front line hero’s who risk their lives to try and stop this madness.
You continue to praise a reality tv actor who only cares about ratings, not reality
America is falling apart. The second wave is coming and you will be hurt badly.
Yes, praise your Loser-in-chief.
You believe he knows more than Doctors, economists, engineers.
America used to be a shining light to the world but now I am sad that this is no longer the case.
Money replaces lives.
Selfishness replaces caring for others in the US but also around the world.
You bring guns to peaceful protests and proudly display them
The world is saddened by this….Rome is burning and I hear a violin in the background.
Yeah, Buster; and the sad sorry tune the violin is playing is for you. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Buster, it tolls for thee. So please fugg off. Thank you.
America
Yes good idea. Stick your head in the sand. Mark my words, in two weeks from now deaths will spike.
And guess what? Your C-in-C will say everything is fine and you should praise him. Be loyal to him after all he works sooooo hard he even forgets lunch sometimes. Looking at his waist line when he is on the golf course says otherwise though……
That is ok. The poor people will risk death At meat factories to make sure his pork sandwich is always available.
Mark my words, in two weeks you will still be an idiot, a busted buster.