OT: Warren Buffet was in Seattle yesterday...
He was here for a luncheon celebrating the CityClub's 20th anniversary. Here's two articles regarding his visit:
seattletimes.nwsource.com
seattlep-i.nwsource.com
A few misc. quotes from the articles:
Warren Buffett's forecast for the Puget Sound economy was summed up in a story about a farmer who takes an ostrich egg into a henhouse and tells the hens: "This is what can be done."
Seattle is the ostrich egg. The community has momentum, clearly," he said. "You've been lucky."
But, cautioned Buffett, the world's second-richest man, "People are most gullible when they are prosperous." During the recent economic boom, he said, "wealth was not created but transferred" and since the slowdown "money went from the gullible to the somewhat more sophisticated."
"You don't build great businesses in a year or five or 10," he said.
"I would not say it's more difficult," he said of long-term investing. "If you own a stock and it doesn't go anyplace, it seems like a long-term investment."
"I have to look them in the eye to see if they love the business or they love the money," he said.
"We need people who love their businesses and even though they sold them, feel they still own them."
Buffett credits his success to luck, calling it the "ovarian lottery." "I happen to be wired right to be dropped into the United States at the end of the 20th century in a capitalist society," Buffett said.
"This country knows how to prosper. It's got a market system that works wonderfully," Buffett said.
The 70-year-old financier says he has been honing his investing skills since he was 6. By the time he turned 10, he had checked every investment book out of his local library.
Buffett joined Microsoft founder Bill Gates and a collection of other wealthy individuals to oppose ending the estate tax. "I am not a big believer in the divine right of the womb," Buffett said yesterday.
The region "has great momentum, clearly," Buffett said. "I think Amazon is a terrific enterprise."
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