Monday, June 30, 2008

Buffett sees signs that recession is getting worse; also says inflation is a worry

Buffett said he disagrees with the idea that speculation was driving oil prices higher. At least nine bills proposing limits on that oil speculation have been introduced in Congress in recent weeks.

"In my adult lifetime, up until the last year or two, there's been a huge amount of excess supply available," Buffett said. "We don't have excess capacity in the world anymore, and that's why you're seeing these oil prices."

Buffett said he doesn't think it makes sense to impose a windfall tax on oil companies that have benefited from the high price of oil when other commodity prices have also increased. Steel, corn and soybean prices are all up significantly.

More.

NVDL: Seems like the media and the world need 'billionaires' like Buffet to state what is pretty obvious. What is obvious is that the US is in a recession, and that speculation isn't behind high oil prices, that it's not the oil companies fault that oil prices areso high. In the past Alan Greenspan said that 'oil was largely behind the war in Iraq' and everyone sat up like it was news. Quite scary. What's also scary is how the media misjudged the Mugabe affair. The headlines all screamed that Mugabe was finished after the 'first' election. A dictator in power for 28 years doesn't just walk away, that ought to have been obvious to SA media in particular.

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