re: Warren Buffet on tariffs

Buffet has been an outspoken critic of bitcoin and continues to do so.

He’s right about a lot of things but he’s wrong about that.

Buffet made his fortune off of his understanding of how the current world economy functions as it pertains to the United States dollar. Anything he says needs to be viewed through that lens.

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I liked Charlie not Warren.

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I preferred Jimmy

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It's funny how he had the opposite opinion and even wrote about it in Forbes in 2003. Heck, if you search for it, the article is hosted on the Berkshire website.

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Just looked it up and he was actually championing import certificates instead of tariffs

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In his op-ed, Buffett proposed “import certificates” (ICs) as a way to balance trade instead of using tariffs. During Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, Buffett was asked if he believed import certificates were distinct from tariffs. “It’s gimmicky, but it’s certainly a lot better than anything I think we’re talking about now,” Buffett replied. “And there’s no question that trade can be an act of war, and I think it’s led to bad things, just the attitude it’s brought out.” Import certificates are essentially credits that would be issued to exporters “in the amount equal to the dollar value of their exports,” Buffett wrote in the op-ed. Those exporters then would be able to sell their certificates to either exporters internationally or domestic importers. “To import $1 million of goods, for example, an importer would need ICs that were the byproduct of $1 million of exports,” Buffett wrote. “The inevitable result: trade balance.”

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These are more similar to the EV credits that we see today. Been very lucrative for American businesses such as Tesla, who use them as a primary means to make money.

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Once again, the bullshite hidden behind the curtain is that the USA isn’t doing anything that’s not already being done back to the USA by everyone else.

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I agree 100% that this has been done before, the only difference this time is the open air discussions and talking to the media as if its some game where we have to win against other countries. It makes much more adversary, and it is not great for actually getting deals done. This should be a win/win for countries involved.

Plus the mental gymnastics when some tried to defend the initial trade imbalance tariffs which were clearly absurd. Trying to say it would bring back manufacturing and that they would not come down

At least at this point everyone is just waiting on deals, mostly from China

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In buying companies and/or stocks, yes. Now ask him if he would invest in a company or run a company with the balance sheet of the US Federal Government. Yeah, we all know the answer.

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He might seriously consider investing in a company that can print its own money, levy taxes, field the largest and most competent military force in the world, and own vast swaths of public land.

The idea that the federal government is analogous to a business or a household, and should be administered like a business or a household, is one of the more damaging and enduring myths in our political discourse.

It was almost like he wanted to shock people for a reason. I think people will be shock again in the future when all these trade deals are done. We will see...

Companies held by Berkshire Hathaway have gone under.


What does this guy know other than managing companies into bankruptcy?

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uffet has been an outspoken critic of bitcoin and continues to do so. He’s right about a lot of things but he’s wrong about that.

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lol

The greatest investor of our lifetime is wrong about something that has zero usage in yours or any of our lives but you- an internet poster on a sports message board, is right….

Mmmokay.

Yeah, I don’t get the bitcoin thing. Initially I saw value as an independent, non-traceable, non-regulated currency. Unfortunately, it’s none of these things. There is no intrinsic value, and for that reason I’m out.

Having said that, things are worth what people are willing to pay for them. There are enough people (and now, sovereign nations) that have decided to buy into “number goes up” logic. It’s still nonsense, but it will be successful for some time because of its adoption by the USA and because people want it to be true. That’s powerful, but still not sound.

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Yeah, I don’t get the bitcoin thing. Initially I saw value as an independent, non-traceable, non-regulated currency. Unfortunately, it’s none of these things. There is no intrinsic value, and for that reason I’m out. Having said that, things are worth what people are willing to pay for them.

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It’s got value because someone is willing to buy it. They’re buying it not because it’s important in their lives or has some usage in daily life, but because others are buying it. It’s fomo trading.
I admit to having bought it for that exact reason and I made money. It was a trade though and nothing more. I bought it because I saw the ferver surrounding it and realized that this is one of those rare opportunities to get onboard a fomo trade unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The dotcom boom bust was the last ride before that for me and I made money but there was some rocky roads along the way.