Buffett says he doesn’t envy the next UK chancellor
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Berkshire Hathaway chief executive Warren Buffett says he would not like to be the man given the charge of fixing the UK’s finances.
Speaking after his firm’s annual general meeting on Saturday in his home town of Omaha, Oklahoma, Buffett said the UK’s debt problems may be more severe than those faced by the US.
He told shareholders: “The [UK] deficits are huge and, if sustained over time, they have to have important consequences.
“Those consequences can start to create their own dynamic and then you are getting into the unknown. I would not want to be put in charge of tackling that debt.”
But Buffett’s business partner Charlie Munger played down the grim assessment of the UK’s finances. He said the UK is “not totally failing” and used the example of the US adopting the bailout strategies of Gordon Brown in 2008 as a sign of potential.
Munger said: “Your government might not be as bad as you might think.”
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Readers' comments (6)
Evan Owen | 4 May 2010 4:28 pm
I will envy anyone who has a decent guaranteed wage plus perks, the best pension scheme, no personal price for being wrong... sounds like a good job to me!
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Jack Spack | 5 May 2010 11:03 am
Buffett and Munger.....you can't make names like that up. I wonder if their business would have been called Buffettmunger if they had ran a restaurant. On the question about the next chancellor, if it is George Osbourn then the man is a buffoon anyway and will make an a*se of the job Guaranteed!
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Jill terr | 5 May 2010 1:15 pm
to jack spack,
I think you are a bit harsh to call George Osbour a Buffoon, the man is at least only an idiot. I would take years of being an idiot to work up to being a Buffoon.
Please at least wait till he makes an a*se of the job before critisism. Who knows the country may even lay a Cable as the alternative.
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Jamie Henderson/Smythe | 5 May 2010 1:18 pm
I wish people would lay off George Osbourn, ok not the sharpest knife in the drawer but at least he is not Ken Clarke
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John Whipple | 5 May 2010 3:06 pm
Isn't it sad we have a prospect that is "not the sharpest knife in the draw" at the best a defensive comment or only an "idiot". perhaps we do get what we deserve?
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Richard Brown, Managing Director, Moneynotion Limi | 6 May 2010 12:43 pm
It is said that we get the leaders we deserve. In that case I want to know what did we do wrong?
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