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Posted
Jun 24 2009, 10:58 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Warren Buffett doesn't sound too hopeful about the economy. Speaking to Bloomberg Television Wednesday, he predicted that things will get worse before they get better.
"It looks like we're going to need more medicine, not less," he said, adding that the country may need a second stimulus package to pull out of the current spiral. "We're going to have more unemployment. The recovery really hasn't got going." Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), reported its first loss this year since 2001. The economy will turn around eventually, he said, but it hasn't happened yet. The rebound will be a slow process, he said.
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Posted
Jul 09 2009, 11:10 AM
by
Catherine Holahan
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has joined the chorus of prominent political figures and businessmen calling for a second stimulus.
The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway told ABC's Good Morning America that the first $787 billion stimulus didn't do enough to help the economy and included too many earmarks for politicians' pet projects.
"Our first stimulus bill . . . was sort of like taking half a tablet of Viagra and having also a bunch of candy mixed in," Buffett said in the interview, "as if everybody was putting in enough for their own constituents."
The call, one of several Buffett has made in recent weeks, came after Buffett had praised the Federal Reserve's efforts to pump money into the economy in interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg television.
It also followed comments by officials in President Barack Obama's administration maintaining that the government would continue a second stimulus should the economy continue to deteriorate. However, the administration said it is not currently discussing a second aid package.
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Posted
Jun 03 2009, 06:31 AM
by
John Reese
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Costco's (COST) subpar fiscal-third-quarter results have gotten a lot of headlines lately. The company has taken heat from some for its 29% decline in earnings -- and gotten praise from others for its reluctance to lay off employees, part of the reason behind the profit decline.
Costco management's decision to avoid layoffs is admirable; whether or not it was a good business decision is another matter. What's more important for investors, however, is that over the long haul, Costco's management hasn't kept pace with that of competitor Wal-Mart (WMT), and the Guru Strategies I run on Validea.com bear that out.
Some may argue that the two retailers aren't direct competitors, and, to be sure, there are some significant differences in their business. For one thing, Costco requires an annual membership fee, while Wal-Mart stores do not. But if you think the two companies aren't competing for the same shoppers, you're kidding yourself. (At the very least, Wal-Mart's Sam's Club -- a discount club that requires an annual fee and accounts for about 12% of Wal-Mart's annual revenues -- is a direct Costco competitor.)
And, over the years, Wal-Mart management has done a better job bringing in those shoppers
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Posted
Oct 17 2008, 09:36 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Warren Buffett pulls out the pom-poms in a New York Times editorial today urging people to follow his lead and buy American stocks. I want to know which stocks he's buying. And, is holding cash really that bad?
Buffett says he's been buying stocks in his own personal account, in which he previously owned nothing but government bonds. If prices stay attractive, he says, soon all of his personal holdings will be 100% U.S. equities. "A simple rule dictates my buying," Buffett writes. "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."
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Posted
Sep 24 2008, 10:41 AM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It's positively swell that Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett has agreed to put $5 billion into Goldman Sachs. Especially for him.
Yes, the move is a way to show confidence in a beleaguered stock market and a beleaguered financial stock whose value has been cut nearly in half since October 2007. But make no mistake: He called the shots on this one. That’s what happens when you can put up $5 billion on a moment’s notice.
And because he can do that, he got a much better deal than you or I could get
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Posted
Nov 20 2008, 09:48 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Shares of Warren Buffett's insurance holding company are on the ropes this month, plunging 30% in part because the famed investor dabbled in an area of the market he has long publicly derided: derivatives. And due to a tangled web of financial relationships, they may be taking Goldman Sachs shares down with them.
Investors are concerned about a $37-billion bet that Buffett made last year that U.S. and world equity values would be higher in 15 to 20 years than they were then, when the Dow Jones Industrials were trading around 13,000. Through his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett sold option contracts, known as "naked puts" to an undisclosed group of investors for around $4.85 billion, reportedly using Goldman as broker.
The buyers saw the puts as a type of insurance that would pay off royally if stocks fell over the next decade. They were seen by Buffett as an easy way to pocket a quick $4 billion-plus, which
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Posted
Jan 02 2009, 07:15 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) dropped 32% last year, the worst performance in 30 years, Bloomberg reports. The biggest part of the decline happened after Buffett wrote a controversial editorial three months ago urging people to buy American stocks. But at least Berkshire is maintaining its track record of outperforming the S&P 500 Index, which plunged 38% last year. “Berkshire can’t escape the general fate of American businesses," a money manager told Bloomberg. "What Buffett tries to do is ensure that Berkshire Hathaway does less badly than other companies.” What's taking Berkshire down?
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Posted
Feb 13 2009, 10:05 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Even Warren Buffett's recent investments aren't making any money.
Some of his buys over the last two years, including Kraft Foods (KFT) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), are still trading at less than what he paid, Bloomberg reports.
"In hindsight, it's easy to see that he was buying too soon," said one financial advisor who owns shares of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. "He'd probably be the first to tell you that. But he and pretty much everybody else had no idea how bad things were going to get."
Buffett -- and Berkshire -- are not immune from this recession.
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Posted
Oct 29 2008, 11:54 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Even Warren Buffett isn't immune from investor pessimism. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway hit a 20-month closing low this week to $105,126. Berkshire hasn't closed below the $100,000 mark in two years, CNBC says. The stock has zoomed all over the place recently, going as high as $147,000 in mid-September. Today it's around the $110,000 mark. The share drop coincides with growing criticism of Warren Buffett, who wrote a New York Times editorial this month urging people to buy U.S. stocks. "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful," he wrote. Now, some are saying that Buffett's timing was off.
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Posted
Mar 03 2009, 02:25 PM
by
Matt Koppenheffer
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
People all over the investing world very rightly anticipate Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder letter every year. Shareholders get a review of the state of the company, while shareholders and non-shareholders alike are treated to CEO Warren Buffett's wit, wisdom, and outlook for the broader economy.
While Rick Munarriz, a colleague at The Motley Fool, has already highlighted a lot of the wisdom from the most recent shareholder letter, I don't think we should overlook a lot of Buffett's legendary wit that gets baked into the letter. So without further ado...
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