I saw this in USA Today. Warren Buffet was quoted as saying he doesn't know anything about Y2K but the smartest people he knows say it will be nothing.

Gee, sad comment on how smart his friend Bill Gates is.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), October 13, 1999

Answers

Mara, what would you expect from someone who was on the exclusive list of schmoozers invited to Gates' monster house a few months ago. The cream of society--or should I say the dregs?

That was about 3 months ago, as I remember.

Why would a man like Buffet, who claims to never invest in something he doesn't understand, have ANY money in stocks now, considering that by definition ALL stocks now are EXTREMELY speculative due to Y2K, and cannot be analyzed mathematically. Harry Schultz WAS NOT invited to that billionaire-brownnosing. He has gone on record as stating, about 4 months ago in his HSL newsletter, that Gates will go down in history as the most villified person of the 20th century, if there's anyone left to write the history. Microsoft has been issuing Y2K "patches" for almost every product even at this late date, which is absolutely unforgiveable.

-- profit_of_doom (doom@helltopay.ca), October 13, 1999.

You should be interested to learn that, while Buffet is probably telling the truth about his Y2k knowledge, he's also sitting on 15 billion in cash or cash equivalents.

Let's see what he does with all that moola. When the market heads south, will the world's greatest value investor be able to resist buying "value" on the way down...down...down...? Without genuine understanding of the implications of Y2k, he is likely to fall victim to premature buying, assuming, of course, that there WILL BE a buying opportunity at some point. Not a sure thing at all IMHO.

-- Dr. Roger Altman (rogaltman@aol.com), October 13, 1999.

His company Bershire Hathaway (BRKA) shares sold for $27,000 each about 3 years ago, $84,000 each a year ago and now are about $56,000 each. Quite a rise and recent drop. But those who have stayed invested in his shares for 5 - 10 years are incredibly loyal and rewarded. They think he deserves to be as wealthy as he is.

-- Ron (judy_sander@hotmail.com), October 14, 1999.

Dr A,

Berkshire moved about $9 billion of those cash equivalents to "securities with fixed maturities" totalling $30 billion swfm as of 2Q99. I translate swfm to mean bonds and/or t-notes.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), October 14, 1999.