buffet the bear

Lawrence lawrence at krubner.com
Sat Aug 25 01:23:33 PDT 2001



>>>>>>>>>>>
The septuagenarian head of Berkshire Hathaway has been telling executives to prepare for a famine of almost biblical proportions after the feast of the late 1990s, .....One private equity investor said that Buffett believes the stock market will suffer from a prolonged "hangover" after the party of the last decade......Last year, Berkshire paid $8bn for companies which sell paint, bricks and carpets. Last month, the Omaha company announced the $590m acquisition of Xtra, which leases truck trailers and cargo containers. In Berkshire's annual letter to shareholders in March, the man dubbed the Sage of Omaha said he prefers purchasing companies over stocks because the long-term prospects for stocks are "far from exciting". <<<<<<<<<<<<

Does he mean stocks will remain depressed for 8 years, or the economy? If the economy, does he feel that productivity will stagnate? If not, is there any reason the economy can't keep growing at productivity x labor growth? Does he feel that the financial markets will be so damaged that there won't be enough cash to keep the economy going, no matter how low the Fed cuts rates? He says he fears a "hangover" from the last decade, does he mean a hangover worse than the S&Ls? That only lasted 4 years, right?



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list