Two rules: 1. Preserve the principal 2. When in doubt, see Rule #1. Warren Buffett More Quotes by Warren Buffett More Quotes From Warren Buffett It's the deleveraging that's going on right now that has caused the credit crisis. Warren Buffett creditcrisisright-now I would say that an RFC-like thing might make sense. I probably would do it myself. But I don't think trying to combine that with what's going through now, I think what is needed now is liquidity. Warren Buffett tryingmightthinking We have provided capital here with a couple of institutions recently. The Federal government did that in the '30s for the RFC and I think there could well be a proper role for government in that. Warren Buffett governmentcouplethinking I'll take the deal, whatever you want to do. Warren Buffett dealswant I mean, you may be very mad at some guy that walked away with a huge golden parachute, but that really isn't the important thing. Warren Buffett madguymean The patient that's on the floor with the cardiac arrest is not Wall Street. It's the American economy. Warren Buffett economywallpatient I think it's been, you know, kind of like a tragic play to this point. But at this point, I think it's clear, and will be clear to the majority of the Congress. I think it's clear to the American people that there is only one countervailing force to a world where financial institutions are trying to sell instruments every day and where credit has dried up, and that's the United States Treasury. Warren Buffett playpeoplethinking You don't want 300 million Americans putting their money under the mattress. Warren Buffett mattressesmillionswant We've got all the ingredients for a sensational future. Warren Buffett sensationalingredients It's just that right now the athlete's on the floor. But we - this is a super athlete. Warren Buffett right-nowathlete I don't want to hold out false hopes that the - by some magic moment, that things will turn around in a couple months because they wouldn't, Charlie. I mean, and it's a big mistake to try and mislead people. Warren Buffett couplemistakemean I think you'll have plenty of scrutiny as how the money's invested. I mean, just like the RFC. When the RFC operated, people knew which institutions they were buying preferred stock in. And it worked very well. Warren Buffett meanpeoplethinking I think the oversight is great, and I think that oversight ought to be devoted almost entirely to the question is this being done at market you know. In other words, you want to make sure that the government isn't investing foolishly. But you don't want to care about which congressional districts it goes to or whether banks get favored over. Warren Buffett investinggovernmentthinking I think that trying to invest through 535 people is a tough job, you know, and so I would give more latitude. Warren Buffett jobspeoplethinking I think it will get moving faster. I mean once you get it off the - once credit flows - now the recession is going to get worse. Warren Buffett meanmovingthinking People do, as long as you have markets, you'll have excesses. Warren Buffett excesslongpeople I mean, you know, you're not going to change the human animal. And the human animal really doesn't get a lot smarter. Warren Buffett humansanimalmean Can you know you can have institutions that put curbs on that in various ways, and actually what the banks, you know, they have various capital ratios and that sort of thing, but the banks got around them, I mean, they set up sieves and that sort of thing just to get more leverage. 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. Warren Buffett guymeanpeople I am not worried about the country. I'm just worried about anything that gums up the potential of the country. And right now, it's pretty gummed up. Warren Buffett gumworriedcountry I mean, they were getting the mortgage of some guy in Omaha, you know, securitized a couple of times. I mean he had all these - they had all these types from Wall Street, you know, and they had advanced degrees, and they look very alert, and they came with these - they came with these things that said gamma and alpha and sigma and all that. And all I can say is beware of geeks, you know, bearing formulas. They've heard that in Europe. Warren Buffett wallcouplemean
