Warren Buffett: 'My Class Has Won' And 'It's Been A Rout'

There are reasons for optimism inside the U.S. economy, according to Warren Buffett. Just not for everyone.

The billionaire investor, cited as the third-richest person in the world by Forbes, said in an interview with the CEO of BusinessWire -- a unit of Buffett's own conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway that publishes press releases -- that while there have been improvements in some areas of the economy, many others haven't fared so well.

Winners, Buffett says, include corporations, who have seen good equity returns, as well as the wealthiest American citizens. The losers? The housing market and average American worker.

"Through the tax code, there has been class warfare waged, and my class has won," Buffett told Business Wire CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz at a luncheon in honor of the company's 50th anniversary. "It's been a rout."

Between 1979 and 2007, the richest one percent of Americans saw their incomes rise by 275 percent, according to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office. The bottom fifth of Americans experience only a 20 percent jump.

It's no secret that Buffett is opposed to the increasing income inequality in the U.S. In August, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO criticized the low tax rates for the richest Americans, including himself, in an op-ed in The New York Times. His stance on raising taxes on the wealthy led to President Obama dubbing his proposal to boost taxes on millionaires the "Buffett rule."

Despite the less-than-stellar economy, Buffett has made two substantial investments in American businesses in recent months. In August, Buffett announced a $5 billion investment in struggling Bank of America. The bank has dealt with a series of publicity blunders, most notably a failed debit card fee, but some forsee a strong comeback in 2012.

Just this week Buffett also surprised many by investing $10.7 billion in IBM, rare for a man known for generally avoiding investments in tech companies.

Though, the American economy will recover -- albeit slowly -- according to Buffett, the situation in Europe may be more complicated due to the ties between the 17 euro zone nations.

"Don't ever give up the right to issue your own currency," Buffett said, referring to the institution of the standardized euro currency.

Here are ten other big moments in Warren Buffett's career:

Comments

[Paganus]

06:54 AM on 11/29/2011

The ubiquitous infantile refrain "Let those wealthy who want to pay more in taxes do so if they really wish," misses the point entirely.

Listen up kiddies, 'cause this isn't hard to grasp. As things stand the wealthy derive far more financial benefit from our communal investments in education, infrastructure, security, etc., than the middle and working classes, yet the wealthy pay less into those investments, as a proportion of their income, than the middle and working classes. The check they write may be larger than mine, but it's worth less to them because it represents a smaller proportion of their income.

Relying on the philanthropy of the wealthy is not only manifestly stupid, since, as a group, they are unreliable donors (just ask today's struggling charities), it simply misses the point, which is this:

As things stand, they pay less into the system, but derive more benefit from it. In a fair system, they would pay in proportion to the benefit they derived, i.e. more than the middle and working classes pay.

[Investor Private]

06:20 PM on 11/28/2011

Warren Buffet should lead by example and write the IRS a $5 billion check. Maybe then we can take him serious about the "stop connoodling the rich" rant he's been preaching

[Paganus]

06:22 AM on 11/29/2011

The point is not whether one rich individual feels the urge to pay the government more (or less). The wealthy pay less, as a proportion of their income, than the rest of us. In a fair system, they should pay at least as much or more, since they benefit disproportionately from government outlays in education, infrastructure, security, etc.

[majorg1000]

12:45 PM on 11/28/2011

Although I respect Warren Buffet, it really says something about Americans when the Super Rich are able to rub our noses in how well they are doing compared to the rest of us. It truely is a sad commentary that our representatives see this and yet, continue to do nothing.

[ckinsobe]

10:06 PM on 11/28/2011

Our reps are mostly the 1% than ks to the corrupt system we have allowed to exist.

[ALECTRO]

11:37 AM on 11/28/2011

The problem is the stock market. Americans wrongly believe that the stock market represents investment in industry. It actually represents speculation in the perceived value of companies by gamblers. Most of America's capital is tied up in this economic roulette game and only a tiny, tiny fraction of it actually is spent on economic development.

The favorable tax treatment of winnings in this game and the transaction tax free exchange of securities creates an illusory picture of economic growth and development. It is neither.

[lexsird]

01:45 AM on 11/25/2011

We just need innovation to turn this all around. We need more industrialist capitalism and less Vegas capitalism. This equates into burning those doing nanosecond trades, speculating, exploiting the system for the sake of exploiting the system for big money with big taxes on fast capital gains. If you flip a stock in time X, you pay Y in taxes. Inverse proportion-ability on the formula will do just the trick. If you want to gamble, go to Vegas. Wall Street is serious business.

Warren and his friends have done the "dine and dash" leaving the poor cousins to foot the bill in the form of the lives of their children and a crushed middle class, and a lower class that is growing exponentially. It's rather disappointing if you take a look at it all, ahoy depression.

[nanreh]

04:46 PM on 11/18/2011

“PACs corrupt the system. They handle vast amounts of money and the money corrupts.
(Quote by - PAUL RYAN, GOP/TP CONGRESSMA­N)

This is not one person doing one bad thing. You can't have a corrupt lobbyist unless you have a corrupt member (of Congress) or a corrupt staff. .. This was a team effort. (Quote by - NEWT GINGRICH, GOP Presidenti­al Candidate)

After reading the comments most of them condemning the rich people for not paying higher taxes, in part is accurate, but the MONEY HOARDERS SUCH AS BILLIONERS Dan Snider, Larry Ellison, Ira Rennert, David Tepper, and many more are the JOHNS employing the CONGRESS
W H O R E S such as Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Erik Cantor, and all the tea parties and gop's belong to GROVER NORQUIST, who refused ta raise taxes as requested by president Obama since he took office

[gtoya1331]

01:57 PM on 11/28/2011

i agree with most of what you posted but fair is fair...PACs exist on both sides of the aisle

[intolleft]

03:43 PM on 11/18/2011

Warren, did you concern for what is being decried as "income inequality" come before or after you just dumped a billion dollars on a stock buying binge? We know it came after your on going fight to keep the IRS from getting a billion dollars in back taxes you owe, but what about those stocks?

[vietveter]

08:18 AM on 11/18/2011

HE
feels
the
injustice

SO, PAY MORE TAXES !

[blukazoo]

06:43 PM on 11/18/2011

He doesn't have a problem with that.

[vietveter]

07:12 PM on 11/18/2011

Don't talk about it, DO IT

[TavernAle]

12:29 AM on 11/19/2011

If the billionaire tax-bracketeers were required by law to pay more in taxes, Warren Buffet would not complain. But, as it is not in the books, why should he?

[jwalter]

11:27 PM on 11/17/2011

I bet he feels really guilty about the billions he made off of TARP by insider trading.
Not guilty enough to give it to the government.

[aacme]

10:08 PM on 11/18/2011

Evidence please. Or are you just blowing smoke from behind your anonymity?

[parabq]

10:23 PM on 11/17/2011

Paternos whole career went down in flames in days for allowing
Buffets career is doing the same for taking advantage of Americans.
What a legacy for two old white guys that no one will care about !!!

[Y3rMawm]

10:16 PM on 11/17/2011

"..the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

"Men who have no courage, pride, or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich – will not remain rich for long.

Francisco D'Anconia.

[vietveter]

08:21 AM on 11/18/2011

people that live in glass houses

SHOULDN'T THROW PLATITUDES.

[aacme]

10:14 PM on 11/18/2011

"If all the rich people in the world divided up their money among themselves there wouldn't be enough to go around."
Christina Stead (1903 - 1983)

That's why they need ours.

[FOXYROSE]

05:26 PM on 11/17/2011

I really admire Mr. Buffet, he is of the old school and has great vision and integrity - both are sorely lacking today. When the rich say they pay 40% of all the taxes, this should signal an alarm - wow, they are way too rich and shouldn't have to pay that much. I wish the rich would move to another continent and take all their wealth with them. Only then can we start anew and rebuild this Republic to a sound and wonderful place to live.

[lexsird]

01:53 AM on 11/25/2011

I admire his cash. I would put us in space with it if I had it. We need to rebuild NASA, that or we should start Star Fleet. I vote Star Fleet. There is a universe out there and we squabble over this one rock that we are all stuck on as a species. If something hits us, we are all toast. It's time to get all the eggs out of the one Earth basket. Or did anyone else take note of that giant asteroid that swooped by us just recently? If that hit us, that is like Hollywood but worse.

NASA, we double up on everything?? Not with Republicans and Democrats fighting, you went out of business. The Chinese will have to save us, or the Soviets. The irony, huh?

[GhostwriterDoF]

04:04 PM on 11/17/2011

Pearl Harbor was a rout too but, it hardly won the War. The Financial Crisis of 2008 was the equivalent of a 21st Century Pearl sneak attack by the 1 Percent using Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction that has literally affected the livelihood of billions of people. Our World's populations are just beginning to understand the scope and scale of what has happened and who is responsible, as the Arab Spring bleeds into a Global Awakening. The 1 Percent started this war, defiling the entire World with their corruption, and the 99 Percent have no choice now but to prosecute this war to whatever end.

[lexsird]

01:55 AM on 11/25/2011

F&F /golf clap

[toddisit]

01:29 PM on 11/17/2011

GOP always cites class warfare when Obama tries to raise taxes on the wealthy but the truth is they have actually engaged in the class warfare, it just hasn't been out in the open.

[Bruce Fenton]

01:04 AM on 11/17/2011

Yes, hes right, income inequality is a problem-- but its a problem CREATED BY GOVERNMENT. Pork projects, bailout bonuses, shady war contracts (to the tune of hundreds of billions) and a pile of regulations that make it harder to do business and harder to earn a living in America as well as make us less competitive with the rest of the world.
More tax is NOT the solution. Govt is singularly inefficient at nearly everything it does ---