Geoff Gannon September 18, 2007

On Warren Buffett and the Federal Reserve

With the larger than expected Fed rate cut today, I thought it might be appropriate to add some perspective from Warren Buffett. He made these comments to CNBC’s Becky Quick, before the announcement from the Fed:

Warren Buffett: (Laughs strongly.) I represent a different view, maybe, than your other viewers. I don’t think it makes any difference whatsoever to an investor in stocks what they do today. I don’t care, I wouldn’t care whether they raise the rate in terms of what I would do in stocks. If I knew exactly what they were going to do, I would not change a buy or a sell order that I have in…The important thing in stocks is to buy a stock in a good business at a reasonable price. Anybody that is buying or selling stocks based on what the Fed is doing, or what they think they’re going to do at their next meeting, I think is destined to not having a great financial future. It really doesn’t have anything to do with the value of good companies 3, 5 years from now.

WB: I’ve worried about inflation every day since I learned about the phenomenon, 60 years ago. (Laughs.) It’s always a danger, always a danger. It’s never gone. It’s always in remission, and question is how well do you do over time controlling it. But, the purchasing power of the dollar will go down over time.

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