Kinross

More like 2.2%. It grew buy 1.6% last quarter and is expected to grow by 2.2% for 2003 and 3.3% for 2004.

Farren

I find it interesting that another stinky rich guy, George Soros (who I'm told helped bring the pound to its knees through speculation), is running around decrying the WTO and other global initiatives because they so blatantly favour rich nations when the math is done.

While not strictly on topic, I'm glad to see that the older industries have produced a few men of conscience who are willing to say honestly what most who have benefited from the system are not.

I'd love to see what happens when all the dotcom billionaires get old and cranky.

John Hancock

What Buffet has is values.

Martin

Ruy Lopez

I read the OP link again and made a quick check of Buffet and BRK (Berkshire). Am now surprised I did not know WHO he is, jewel among stones. He means what was attributed to him in the OP.

Martin and Farren; agree with your sentiments.

Hubblehead; still cannot be sure if you meant sarcasm. That's probably because I don't know you or your previous posts. Apologies in either case.

subi dura a rudimus. I agree with your sentiment and do not want to debate your point. The phrase "whose greed was well modulated", just may not be accurate. Greedy investors and traders, modulated or not, tend to lose in the markets eventually. Ask any broker who would not pull your leg--not that the broker knows how to make money but that he knows who wins and losses.

Ever heard of exceptionally few people who are gifted and find markets challenging enough to match wits with. Money becomes an objective measure of success but is not the "primary goal". You could even say Buffet detests the large domineering crocodiles in the market and has resolved to demonstrate that there is "another way".

AdamSmith and Jesus tap dancin. "Recession" is an administrative definition of two successive quarters. I did not use the word properly. What I meant is the economic condition worldwide that started in 1998 extending up to now, and in the case of the US, from 2000 up to now. It is properly called "recessionary or major slowdown period". This can be compared to the 1968 to 1982 era but the more appropriate timespan would be 1929 to 1945, a depressionary era. Also, Japan was not always in "recession" in the last 12 years. Majority of the time were growth years.

I do not know if the US will have a depression but I'm fairly confident the next 8 to 12 years would be a recessionary period worse than 1968-1982. It's the Kondratieff long wave. If you wish to dispute, you have to explain the 12 years of Japan, 6 years in most of the world and 3 plus years in the US of economic limbo that Optional feels.

I think I know the US policy response; monetary supply inflation just like in the Great Depression. This would avoid sharp negative GDP moves but more companies would fail and more jobs lost. People will know that they have indeed become much poorer.

Ruy Lopez

I think I know the US policy response; monetary supply inflation just like in the Great Depression. This would avoid sharp negative GDP moves but more companies would fail and more jobs lost. People will know that they have indeed become much poorer.

I forgot to mention an important aspect. US gov't has been engaging in monetary supply inflation for a while now. That is what "robust package of economic stimulus" means. Also threatening to and going to war is another arm of monetary inflation. It reinforces the public siege mentality and gives "justification" for more deficit spending. "We will spend everything necessary to win the war" thunderous applause.

In every downwave or winter phase of the Kondratieff long wave, one will find war.

ImGod

I've read a couple of books on Buffet and the strategies he uses.

Interesting notes;

1) He still lives in the house he bought in Omaha in 1958 for $31,000.

2) He has never split the shares of Berkshire Hathaway. He did create a non-voting share class to decrease the cost of investing in the company because larger companies were buying shares with pools of money from investors and charging fees. He maintains control of the company by not diluting the shares.

3) He is worth billions, but only draws a $100,000 yearly salary. He would have to sell his shares to get access to more money. They have 12 employees in the corporate office.

4) He doesn't care for the stock market day trading. His position is the stock market closes every weekend and the world doesn't end.

5) People thought he was nuts and not in touch with the times when he didn't invest much in technology through the 90s. But he said he didn't understand it so he couldn't bring himself to invest in it.

Here's the website to the company.

Berkshire Hathaway

Read the section on corporate governance in his 2002 annual report. A CEO would hate to have Buffet on the Board of Directors of his company.