CNBC Transcript of Jan. 19, 2005, interview with Warren Buffett:
BILL GRIFFETH: I know I’m not going to get you to tell us what you’re buying or anything, right now, but your thoughts on the stock market right now in light of what’s going on with the economy and corporate profitability, the Fed raising rates? I mean, just big picture, what’s Warren Buffet think of the U.S. stock market right now?
BUFFETT: I never try to predict the market. I’ve made money over the years by buying into good companies, run by good people, at attractive prices. And I don’t try and make it out of buying into the market at one point and selling at another point. I’m having a hard time finding things to buy, if that says anything about the market. But really — if I find something tomorrow to buy, I don’t give a thought as to whether the market is going up or down. I just barrel in.
GRIFFETH: Are you bullish, as it were, on the dollar? Do you think it goes much lower from here?
BUFFETT: I think over time that — unless we have a major change in trade policies, I don’t see how the dollar avoids going down. I don’t know when it happens, I don’t have any idea whether it will be this month or this year, or next year. But we are force-feeding dollars on to the rest of the world at the rate of close to a couple billion dollars a day, and that’s going to weigh on the dollar. I see no way around that.
GRIFFETH: I know that you have taken positions, sort of against the dollar, but do you want to look overseas more for acquisitions instead, as a result of this?
BUFFETT: Well, I certainly welcome the chance to buy businesses, or for that matter, stocks, denominated in the other currencies, or businesses that do — make their money in other currencies. But I’ve always been interested in that. But I would say that it would be a small plus to be in half a dozen other countries versus earning money in the dollar. We still have most of our money in dollars. That’s the nature of running all the businesses we do. But we’ve never — prior to 2002, I had never owned a dime’s worth of foreign currency. I mean, when I got back from a trip, I couldn’t wait to cash in my eight euros, or whatever is was that was left over. But I’ve changed my views.
Curious minds want to know when and how Buffett would reverse his opinion on the dollar. Since buying and holding currencies is not exactly a strategy, what is Buffett’s currency trading strategy?
