People love leverage when it's working. I mean, it's so easy to borrow money from a guy at X and put it out at X. Howard Warren Buffett More Quotes by Howard Warren Buffett More Quotes From Howard Warren Buffett The ingredients that made this country, you know, the miracle of the world - I mean we had a seven for one improvement in the average American standard of living in the 20th century. Howard Warren Buffett average mean country You want to be greedy when others are fearful. Howard Warren Buffett investing-money buffets want We have a terrific economy, it's like a great athlete that's had a cardiac arrest. Howard Warren Buffett cardiac economy athlete You may be very mad at some guy that walked away with a huge golden parachute, but that really isn't the important thing. I mean, if Pearl Harbor came along, you could have said the planning was wrong by the military ahead of time or maybe the battleships shouldn't have all been in the harbor and all that kind of thing. Howard Warren Buffett mad military mean I mean, the job is Pearl Harbor. And you better not spends weeks and weeks and weeks trying to assign blame or deciding on a complete plan for fighting the whole war, you know, and letting a committee decide where the battleships should go and all of that. You better spring into action with the best people you have. Howard Warren Buffett spring jobs war When the Federal government buys the mortgages, they're not spending it, they're investing it. Howard Warren Buffett mortgage investing government I don't think it would be crazy to have a model or an entity model on the Reconstruction Finance Corp. That goes back to 1932, although it was really implemented in '33 under Jesse Jones, and it invested in mostly banks initially and preferred stock and that sort of thing. Howard Warren Buffett crazy would-be thinking Any time I can be of help to the government in terms of giving advice -I've given a little advice, actually. Howard Warren Buffett government advice giving The good thing is, we have household formation in this country. We have a country where I don't know whether it's a million households a year or more, but good form. Howard Warren Buffett good-things country years You could have these crazy Internet valuations in the late 1990s, but they prove themselves out in the market. The next day they were selling for more than they were the day before, and people said, you know, you're crazy if you don't get in on this. So it's very human. Howard Warren Buffett next-day crazy people If you owe money, you can't pay them out. You just pay for everything, you do smart things, you eventually get very rich. If you do smart things and use leverage and do one wrong thing along the way, it could wipe you out, because anything times zero is zero. But it's reinforcing when the people around you are doing it successfully, you're doing it successfully, and it's a lot like Cinderella at the ball. [...] And everybody thinks they're going to leave at two minutes to 12. Howard Warren Buffett smart zero thinking Confidence is key. You're not going to leave your money with me unless you're confident I'm going to give it back to you. And at this point, when treasury bills, seven day treasury bills at 1/20th of one percent, it's not because people want to earn 1/20th of one percent, it's because they trust the fact the treasury will give it back to them next week. Howard Warren Buffett keys next-week people I mean the whole economy just comes to a grinding halt. Competence in markets and in institutions, it's a lot like oxygen. When you have it, you don't even think about it. Indispensable. You can go years without thinking about it. When it's gone for five minutes, it's the only thing you think about. And the oxygen has been sucked out of the credit markets. Howard Warren Buffett oxygen mean thinking I love to tell how I'm suffering because one percent we're paying 25 percent of the total. We're not paying 25 percent of the total taxes on individuals. We're paying maybe 25 percent of the income tax, but the payroll tax is over a third of the receipts of the federal government. And they don't take that from me on capital gains. They don't take that from me on dividends. They take from the woman who comes in and takes the wastebaskets out. Howard Warren Buffett payroll-tax government suffering When I was 5, my father was very much my hero. And he ran for political office in a very thankless campaign for a very thankless position. And he did it because his mother had instilled in him, if you are someone who has the capacity to make a great change, you have the responsibility. Howard Warren Buffett change hero mother father I've spent so much time with my dad traveling and seeing the ground-level change that we've been able to make through philanthropy and trip over trip, time over time, country over country, home after home we've been invited into, given tea, given food that people didn't have to give us, I mean all of these things. Howard Warren Buffett change home time food If I'm home, I'll be happy. And if I'm around family, and if I'm working on projects with friends, I don't know what else I'd want to be doing. Howard Warren Buffett be-happy family home happy There are more living organisms in a tablespoon of highly organic soil than there are people on the planet. Howard Warren Buffett more living soil people I was pulled out of Omaha when I was younger because my father started to work, when he was done serving as county commissioner, at Archer Daniels Midland. Howard Warren Buffett serving done work father
