Warren Buffett: Bank woes are "poetic justice"

[marmar]

from Reuters:



Buffett: Bank woes are "poetic justice"
Thu Feb 7, 2008 7:37am EST
By Wojtek Dabrowski

TORONTO (Reuters) - The woes in the U.S. financial sector are "poetic justice" for bankers who designed and sold complex investments that have since gone sour, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on Wednesday.

The head of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (BRKb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) group of companies also played down worries about a credit crunch by saying that recent interest rate cuts mean low-cost funds are readily available.

But he warned that the U.S. dollar will continue to slide unless the country can rein in its yawning trade deficit -- the "biggest factor" behind the decline. Still, he said, the U.S. economy will "do very well over time."

Buffett, one of the world's wealthiest people, appeared to see irony in the fact that many of the banks who marketed complex investments which have now crashed are bearing much of the fallout.

"It's sort of a little poetic justice, in that the people that brewed this toxic Kool-Aid found themselves drinking a lot of it in the end," he said.

Buffett, a legendary investor who has amassed a huge fortune through plays in a wide range of industries, has bet against the U.S. dollar in the past.

In 2005, Berkshire had made a $21.8 billion bet that the U.S. dollar would fall. It later unwound that successful position as it found other non-U.S. investments. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN0631767220080207?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

[liberal N proud]

1. "toxic Kool-Aid" - Love it

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. I believe it was the immortal Daffy Duck who once said...

"Consequences schmonsequences...as long as I'm rich."

[PA Democrat]

3. But sadly it's the little guy who pays the price for the poor judgment of the top executives.

The CEOs still get their golden parachutes, and their buddies on the board of directors all take care of each other. It's the employee who is just doing their job, struggling to pay their bills that gets laid off.

[El Pinko]

4. The bankers who engineered this mess will still wallow in luxury.

It will be the working people who will suffer the most in the era of massive dollar devaluation this mess is ushering in.

But then, it's always the working people who suffer the most.