Warren Buffett Backs Second Stimulus, Criticizes Plan To Buy Wall Street's 'Toxic Assets' (VIDEO)

Renowned investor Warren Buffett gave tacit approval to a second stimulus package in an interview today with "Good Morning America." Buffett criticized the first stimulus package, saying "it was sort of like taking half a tablet of Viagra and having also a bunch of candy mixed in ... as if everybody was putting in enough for their own constituents." However he believes another round of stimulus "may well be called for."

Buffett also had harsh words for the government's plan to buy so-called toxic assets off of troubled Wall Street banks. "GMA" has more here.

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Comments

[Name Not In Use]

05:57 AM on 07/10/2009

WHO plans this crap? Only two categories of people:

1. Former Wall street insiders.
2. Wall street insider wanabe's.

[Mildmannered]

09:38 PM on 07/09/2009

"Beset by rising unemployment, declining wages and persistent credit-tightening by banks, consumers are pulling back. Although some economists welcome the trend after years of open-handed spending, the belt-tightening is almost certain to have a negative effect on the U.S. economy, in which about 70% of gross domestic product comes from personal consumption."

The consumers are thus not going to pull us out of this recession, which is yet another reason why a second stimulus is needed.

[BabblingBrooks]

04:15 PM on 07/09/2009

Bushism of the Day
"The more that we can do to stimulate the economy in the short term, the challenge we've got as everybody knows is that we inherited a big deficit, and it is at a certain point potentially counterproductive if we're spending more money than we're having to borrow."--President Obama, July 7
--Best of the Web

[pm247]

04:14 PM on 07/09/2009

Let the INVESTORS take their losses on toxic assets! No more bail outs or buy outs.

The economy is a bathtub with two big holes in it: health care costs and the foreign trade deficit. You can keep adding water (stimulus) but it will leak right out.

To fix the economy establish single payer health care; cancel free trade agreements; and put the big banks through receivership.

[Mike Barden]

03:45 PM on 07/09/2009

Gee, maybe i should read up on somma this stuff.

[research]

03:36 PM on 07/09/2009

More Stimulus good,

TARP Banker bailout Bad.

Figure it out.

Rooftop solar and biochar would be great stimulus investments . see my profile for details.

[Mike Barden]

03:40 PM on 07/09/2009

is this an ad?

[research]

03:48 PM on 07/09/2009

Noop.

1.85 per peak watt! retail!
http://www.atensolar.com/14.html
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

[blood1]

02:44 PM on 07/09/2009

The question should be: What is the purpose of a second stimulus bill? Who is it really going to help? Those with money to spend are probably doing just that. Those without money will either save it or make a one time purchase - which will only improve the overall numbers at a national level, but most of us know that it will not have a long term impact.

President Obama has stated that this economic downturn would last a while...so why is everyone demanding that it end immediately? This sounds like all the legislators that are up for re-election in 2010 want to be able to tell their constituents that "things are improving" - code for: I want to be re-elected.

If the states fail to spend the money sent to them via the ARRA to benefit their population, then yell at your legislators and quit looking for a quick fix. It tooks years of mismanagement to get our economy where it is...and sorry, there is no quick fix.

[BabblingBrooks]

02:33 PM on 07/09/2009

Buffett has proven himself pretty darn good at making money--not necessarily at making sense in any other field of endeavor! How he can "support" more deficit spending strains the fabric of reality.

[tre]

12:35 PM on 07/09/2009

Stimulus #1 didn't work, so let's try it again.

Now, what was that definition of insanity?

[Philip Combs]

01:05 PM on 07/09/2009

Doing what the ReThug morans want which is....

...nothing.

[BabblingBrooks]

04:16 PM on 07/09/2009

No, they have wanted to do USEFUL things for the economy. The Republican stimulus plan, for example WOULD HAVE STIMULATED! We would be much better off by now...It is Democratic MYTH that Republicans want to do nothing.

[Liberal2]

12:25 PM on 07/09/2009

Heh, yeah, a second round of stimulus....meanwhile Buffett is investing in the Chinese electric car industry to sell their cars in America. Hey, Buffett, you fraud, you stimulate the US economyh.

[Shwazy]

12:07 PM on 07/09/2009

We don't need another "stimulus". We need criminal investigations, effective regulations, and transparency.

We need to tear down wall street and rebuild our financial institutions such that they are responsible to their customers, not their shareholders.

[iSeeDumbPeople]

12:47 PM on 07/09/2009

**applause!**

[hellboundtrain]

10:41 PM on 07/09/2009

Yes, we need A.G. Holder to do his job, ignoring any possible interference from the executive branch!

[spinns17]

11:31 AM on 07/09/2009

more money for the wall street crooks .go onnnnnnnnn

[ksmith111]

11:17 AM on 07/09/2009

If there is a second stimulus it should go directly to the citizens

[iSeeDumbPeople]

11:28 AM on 07/09/2009

Attempting to defraud the United States of America should be a federal offense, we should round up the crooks, charge them with malfeasance, and toss them in the clink!

Why is it considered poor taste to suggest putting criminals in jail?

[hark]

12:03 PM on 07/09/2009

Disagree. It should go toward long term investment in energy and infrastructure, which in turn will provide long term jobs for the 21st century.

Just handing money out produces nothing but a brief surge in retail sales. We have to do less consuming and more investing.

[BBC9nch]

12:45 PM on 07/09/2009

Long term energy and infrastructure? How does that put people back to work tomorrow or next week? What you describe is exactly what a major percentage of the first stimulus went toward. How has that helped the economy after 5 months? We are not talking about seeing the economic conditions turn around overnight but at least there should be some signs of daylight at the end of the tunnel.

[wizedollars]

11:17 AM on 07/09/2009

Lies, lies, lies. These stimulus (stimuli) packages will create about as many new jobs as NAFTA did. Remember Clinton's promise about new jobs? "We won't be fooled again," sing along....

[mandennis]

12:01 PM on 07/09/2009

Consider this. Charles Grassley wrote the CBO for an updated report on the stimulus hoping that Grassley can have something to jump on. To the dismay of Grassley, the CBO report (March 02, 2009) estimates that the stimulus "implies an increase in GDP relative to the agency"s baseline forecast of between 1.4 percent and 3.8 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009, between 1.1 percent and 3.4 percent by the fourth quarter of 2010, between 0.4 percent and 1.2 percent by the fourth quarter of 2011, and declining amounts in later years... " In short, the CBO projects the net effects of the stimulus as better than the baseline (that is, without the stimulus). Furthermore, in terms of the net effects on employment, the CBO estimates employment will increase "by 0.9 million to 2.3 million by the fourth quarter of 2009, by 1.2 million to 3.6 million by the fourth quarter of 2010, by 0.6 million to 1.8 million by the fourth quarter of 2011, and by declining numbers in later years. The effect on employment is never estimated to be negative, despite lower GDP in later years, because CBO expects that the U.S. labor market will be at nearly full employment in the long run... " Again, to his dismay, Grassley found no ammunition to support his argument that the stimulus does not work. Otherwise, Grassley would be waving the CBO report at Obama.

[smchp]

12:27 PM on 07/09/2009

So your solutions is tax cuts and less regulation? Yea that sure worked well the last 8 years.

[Mildmannered]

09:39 PM on 07/09/2009

the less regulation, especially financial regulation, is the reason for our current recession.

[Jazzman323]

11:11 AM on 07/09/2009

Latest Rasmussen Poll:

Latest Obama Approval Numbers 51%-48% (Pres. Approval index down to -8)

[platanoman]

11:47 AM on 07/09/2009

First of all, Rasmussen report is a republican poster. Other than that, I don't like their methods. Like this: (Pres. Approval index down to -8). They are just adding strong support and strong disapproval. That's not a poll

[Jazzman323]

01:28 PM on 07/09/2009

Obama's poll numbers are dropping on all polls.