Warren Buffett on CNBC this morning

Warren Buffett is on CNBC this morning from 6-9 AM.


A few nuggets from the beginning of the interview:

1. Buffett admits he believed that home prices could never fall.
2. He said Barrack Obama (whom he supported for president) should focus all effort on the current "economic Pearl Harbor," rather than trying to push through a lot of unrelated, controversial legislation.
3. He said America's upcoming inflation could be worse than the inflation of the 1970s, depending on how policymakers respond to it.
4. He said the U.S. economy almost collapsed in September.
5. There are 1.5 million too many houses in the U.S. right now, but population growth will take care of that over time. A big difference between America's housing decline and Japan's is that America has population growth and Japan didn't.
6. Once we get past the current crisis, it's a great time to be in banking because the yield spread between a bank's borrowing costs and it's lending rates is huge. Banks will make a lot of money on the new lending they are doing.
7. Buffett favors mark-to-market accounting, because he's seen what happens when CEOs get to choose their own numbers. However, mark-to-market accounting has been "gasoline on the fire" during the current crisis. He'd love to buy the banks' toxic assets at their current mark-to-market prices.
8. He favors secret ballots for unionization, and opposes the Democrats' plans for card check, which is part of the Employee Free Choice Act currently before Congress. He thinks card check is a mistake.