Since I would put Warren Buffett in the eternal optimist camp, I guess I would take this with a grain of salt.
With his rose colored glasses perched on his nose, the Oracle of Omaha declared yesterday that there will be no “double-dip”
Of course, since Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings do include a pretty broad slice of American businesses, his opinion on this matter is not one that you can casually ignore.
From CNBC by Alex Crippen entitled: Warren Buffett Still Doesn’t Expect ‘Double-Dip’ Recession
“Warren Buffett doesn’t appear to be concerned that slowing U.S. economic growth will worsen to become a “double-dip” recession, saying there’s no evidence of “sour” sentiment in the latest results from Berkshire Hathaway’s numerous operating businesses.
Speaking today by video to the Montana Economic Development Summit, AP quotes him as telling those attending:”I am a huge bull on this country. We are not going to have a double-dip recession at all. I see our businesses coming back across the board.
Bloomberg has almost the same quote, adding the word ‘almost’ to make it read, “I see our businesses coming back almost across the board.”
It also adds this quote from Buffett:
“I’ve seen sentiment turn sour in the last three months or so, generally in the media. I don’t see that in our businesses. I see we’re employing more people than a month ago, two months ago.”
Buffett said U.S. banks are now prepared to increase their lending: “It’s night and day from a year, year and a half ago. I know Wells Fargo, they would love to have $50 billion more of loans now. Go in and talk to the banker.”
It’s not the first time Buffett has rejected suggestions the U.S. economy could again fall into recession in the near future, but today’s comments do appear to reflect a more optimistic outlook with no reported mentions of an anemic recovery.
In March of this year, CNBC’s Becky Quick asked him if he was worried about a “double-dip.” At that time, he said:
“It’s a slow recovery. The only thing—I mean, if you had some big exogenous event, I mean if you had something go wrong in the European Union or—I mean, there—if something—a huge terrorist attack, I mean, you can—you can think of things that would cause another jolt to the economy like that jolt we had in September of 2008. But absent something really big from an exogenous nature to the United States, no, I think we will continue moving upward but not at a very fast rate.”
The Oracle of Omaha strikes again.
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