Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha” on U.S-China/Russia Economic Competition and Trumpty Dumpty’s Legal Havoc

Omaha Zoo. Warren Buffett Country. 2004

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BREAKING: How China & Russia Are Exploiting Trump’s “Chaos” To Win (Warren Buffett’s Worst Fear)

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(Note: Lately, over the past few weeks, I hacve started listening to the podcasts of Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, founder and long-time CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the more, if not the most, successful investment companies in U.S. History. His podcasts , interviews on the internet, seem to have increased dramatically of late, the reason being that he is worried about fragile state of global finance, the Trump Administration policies, and is suggesting that both the country and the world are heading for, or already engaged in a wild ride that includes a possible global depression of serious proportions.

About two weeks ago, I stumbled upon a Buffett podcast on what he is warning is a coming economic contraction (which we are already in). I found his comments, as usual, down-to earth and insightful; along with the likes of Richard Wolff, Michael Hudson, Lena Petrova, Danny Haiphong, etc.). It is interesting that although one of the more ardent defenders of the status quo, that Buffett’s comments often dovetail with those of these economists, all, to varying degrees, critics of the current economic system. All three of them are warning of a coming dramatic downturn; although careful how he words it, so is Buffett. More important than his predictions is the methodology he uses to come to that conclusion.

All this is to say, that as the current economic crisis deepens, it is worthwhile to listen to and study Buffett’s analyses along with the others mentioned above. The two interviews posted here just above are classic examples. The one, on developments in the global economic sphere – minus what I consider to be his silly, but typical comments on Russia -, is insightful about the problems and challenges of the U.S.-China current economic competition. The second one is one of the more understandable summaries of Trump’s complex legal problems, and how to understand the possible economic and political consequences of those court cases.

He is referred to as the “Oracle of Omaha” because he hails from there, lives in a not particularly luxurious home in one of Omaha’s middle-class neighborhoods, has gotten his hair cut – so the story goes – at the same barber shop, like Trump (perhaps only in this way) likes big Macs and drinks Coke, etc.. ie, the billionaire and one of the world’s richest men who lives a supposedly typical middle-class life. Buffett is respected in Nebraska City, 45 miles due south of Omaha on the Missouri River from whence come my in-laws, and, I am told, it is Berkshire Hathaway money that funds some of Nebraska City’s more enticing enterprises either in whole or in part.

I have not followed Buffett’s career nor his public statements closely over the years. For me, he’s just another billionaire, not a category I have any use for, one that actually shouldn’t exist in this world at all. But I do clearly remember that just before the “dot com bubble” bust in the early 2000s, wiping out the wealth of many (including some in my family), that Buffett had warned the bubble would burst. I also found his oft repeated statement that he wouldn’t invest in anything that he could not understand as a kind of wisdom not often heard from the class to which he belongs.

Storm coming. Nebraska City in the background. From Sapp Brothers in Iowa, just across the Missouri River in Iowa.