Buffett:
“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.”
Video:
Hat tip: My Investing Notebook
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
"Dollar depreciation leads to higher inflation and ultimately forces foreign creditors to question their rationale and indeed their sanity for continuing purchases of U.S. Treasuries." -Bill Gross
Signs continue that European markets are getting tired. The Spanish and Italian stock markets, big beneficiaries of the sharp decline in their bond yields over the past few months are falling to the lowest since Feb 1. The European bank index is at a 1 1/2 week low after earnings reports from Commerzbank and Credit Ag (RBS bouncing although reporting weaker than expected earnings) were disappointing. This market action is in spite of the German IFO business confidence figure which rose to a 7 month high coming in a touch above expectations and Italian consumer confidence which bounced more than...
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July 8th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
HAH! Well said Warren….well said sir
“If you will it, it is no dream.”
July 8th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
And what congress will pass such a law?
None.
What a grandstanding, self-serving, egotistical twit this man is !!!
July 8th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
How would the law be passed, but by the very body of lawmakers who’s position is threatened ? Do you honestly expect congress to pass a bill that would enact a law such as this?
“You just pass a law that says ….”: Presuppositions and hyperbole abound — this man lives in a fantasy world of self worship. Does he even understand how U.S. civics works?
July 8th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Thats a great idea – I bet his father coined it.
July 8th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
It’s only rhetorics. Buffet knows very well that such a law could never be passed in a representative democracy. He’s simply making the point that the deficit couldn’t exist without the complicity of that policy making body. The reality is that elected representatives each carry their own (or their constituents’, or more likely their sponsors’) agenda into Congress, and the deficit is not usually their main priority. Being a shared responsibility, it’s easiest to see it as someone else’s problem rather than be the first one to sacrifice their own agenda). The problem lies in representative democracy itself in that the very objections listed above demonstrate how it makes certain benign actions impossible, and the emergence of malign emergent situations inevitable.
July 8th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
There would be an inexhaustible pool of idiots waiting to get elected to Congress, to replace the ones kicked out.
July 8th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Wow, these comments have some back-seeded anger. oh well, Haters gonna hate. At least he is thinking of a solution( all be it a ” in a perfect world” solution) that is outside of the box, he could just take his massive wealth and tell everybody to bite his shiny metal ass.
July 8th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
@ ralphclark – don’t you know intelligent comments are prohibited in online forums… or maybe they’re so rare I just think they are. Anyway… I think the concepts of rhetoric or symbolism in language are just too much for a place like this – it requires thought.
July 8th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
I believe people who are thinking of his answers to literally have never told a story by grandpa or “crazy” uncle chuck. He is making valid points, so stop taking it like its a blunt poke to your brain and think about it.
Go pick up an English book and look up a “sardonic” sense of humor.
July 8th, 2011 at 3:28 pm
This wouldn’t work. Most of the Bush budgets fell within these parameters excluding the cost of the wars. The deficit was still a problem. Not to mention this proposal would mean any declaration of war would clear both houses of congress…on second thought…
July 8th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Why make these difficult decisions “at the point of a gun”?
Because decades of experience has shown that Congress is incapable of doing it any other way.
July 9th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Do the same for jobs. Peg the corporate tax rate to the unemployment rate. They’ll create jobs real fast.
July 9th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
WE ARE RESPONSIBLE for voting our lawmakers out of office if they fail to perform their civic duty to serve us and the best interests of this country. The fact there are senators & congressmen who have not served us well, and have been in office for multiple terms is OUR FAULT as irresponsible voters. WE have a voice. As the largest group, middle-class America has far more power than we realize. We simply choose not to exercise it because we have convinced ourselves we are helpless victims, or don’t bother to pay attention. This country could not operate without US. We need to exercise our power by voting with sense instead of voting our emotions. We need to do what we know is right instead of buying into the emotional insanity of the media & politicians.
July 10th, 2011 at 8:48 pm
There are a few other ways to help the economy.
This is very much focused on the people how just graduate but don’t have the jobs that the were “promised”. (With that, I mean no jobs in their field because of employment).
When uni students graduate, and they get a student loan from the government. Give them 2 years to find a job before they have to pay back the loan. It is insane / unrealistic that you have to pay back a loan instantly while you don’t even have a job yet.
This keeps people at home (at their parents), unemployed (as there are not jobs) more in debt with creditcards and the downwards spiral begins.
July 13th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
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