Trade should not be a weapon, said Warren Buffett
The world's most revered investor, Warren Buffett, who has run Berkshire Hathaway for over 60 years, has shared his insights on global affairs and trade at his company's annual gathering, which has long been known as the "Woodstock for Capitalists".
Here are some chunks from Warren Buffett's speech:
- "You can make very good arguments for the fact that balanced trade is good for the world...and the more balanced trade there is, the better," said Warren Buffett.
- "Trade should not be a weapon...there's no question that trade can be an act of war. And I think it's led to bad things, just look at the attitudes it has stirred up in the United States."
- "We want a prosperous world. With eight countries with nuclear weapons, including a few that are quite unstable, I don't think it's a great idea to design a world where a few countries say, ha ha ha, we've won."
- "I do think that the more prosperous the rest of the world becomes, it won't be at our expense; the more prosperous we'll become, and the safer we'll feel."
- "Capitalism in the United States has succeeded like nothing you've ever seen."
- "We are not in the business of trying to solve unsolvable problems."
- "It's easier to do stupid things with other people's money than it is with your own money. That's one of the problems government has generally. We don't want to bring it to private enterprise."
- "We wouldn't want to be owning anything in a currency we really thought was going to hell."
- "I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that Tim Cook has made Berkshire a lot more money than I've ever made Berkshire Hathaway."
- "We've gone through great recessions, we've gone through world wars, we've gone through the development of an atomic bomb that we never dreamt of at the time I was born, so I would not get discouraged about the fact that it doesn't look like we've solved every problem that's come along."
