QUICK: Yeah, cherry Coke by his side. And, Warren, we've been talking all things Olympics the whole way through. What do you think about Coca-Cola and the major sponsorship that it has with the Olympics?
BUFFETT: Well, it has a long, long history with the Olympics, and it--it's very important. I mean, Coca-Cola wants to be associated with happiness around the world. Every major event they want to be here. And it's important--with a brand, there's something in the mind about a brand. I mean, you have something in your mind about Coca-Cola or--but you don't have anything in your mind about RC Cola because they've never been, you know. So we want that--we want that brand to be associated with something like the Olympics where there's happiness, where there's competition, where the nations are getting together. It's a venue we could not skip.
QUICK: There have been people in the past who have said, `Hey, these sponsorships get more and more expensive.' There are guerilla ways that other companies can kind of make their way in...
BUFFETT: Yeah.
QUICK: ...without paying. Is that an option for Coca-Cola down the road?
BUFFETT: No, I--Coca-Cola would never be going on a country road when the interstate's available. And it's--we're not--we're not there to be around the edges, we're there to be front and center.
QUICK: You know, Carl, we've been talking earlier in the week about what some of the Chinese media had been reporting about Buffett, about Bill Gates. What have people been saying?
QUINTANILLA: Well, I think--I think the Coke comments are interesting, Warren. We interviewed the chief marketing officer from Coke here last week, and of all the Olympic sponsors, right, the global sponsors, the GEs of the world, the Lenovos, in China the poll numbers show that they associate the Olympics the most of all the sponsors with Coke. So the marketing machine is obviously working. We did--we did talk earlier in the week back--maybe it was last week--about Pangu Plaza, the big hotel and office park...
QUICK: Right.
QUINTANILLA: ...and shopping mall that's over my shoulder here. And The Times did that story earlier in the week about whether or not Bill Gates had rented out a penthouse for a year, and whether or not Warren was staying there. Any truth to that at all, Warren?
BUFFETT: No, I'd actually talked about going to the Olympics a little bit with Bill, but I'm the kind of guy that has to have it explained to me on television what happened, you know, that I just saw. So I enjoy it enormously watching it on television, and Bill was over there for a week. Although the day or two before he went over he was playing at a bridge tournament in Omaha and then he came back to Omaha almost directly from the Olympics after about a week over there.
QUICK: So that wasn't you? You weren't--you weren't the one they spotted walking around in Beijing?
BUFFETT: No, that must be my double, George Clooney, actually that was spotted.
QUINTANILLA: Has--Warren, has the--have the games, in all seriousness, have the games made you think any differently about this part of the world--the world, western China, growth opportunities, the ability for American companies to operate effectively within a different government structure?
BUFFETT: Yeah, well, I was over there almost a year ago--Becky was with me--and I was blown away by what I saw. I'd been there--the time before that was 1995, and I really had never seen a country change so much in a--in a 12 or so year period, and clearly, when you think of the size of the country, to effect that sort of change. So I--no I've been a big believer in China before the Olympics and certainly they've put on a marvelous show during the Olympics. And--but I would have expected that. You get--you get a bunch of very, very bright people who care enormously about putting on a wonderful event, they're going to get the job done.
QUICK: What about Chinese stocks? Does--do those--does the stock market there interest you? You've been looking around the globe?
BUFFETT: Yeah, you know, you still can't buy stocks within China except under special circumstances.
QUICK: Right.
BUFFETT: But, yeah, I--we owned that PetroChina stock at one time. There's one other stock over there that we actually made a bid on here not so long ago, and it wasn't accepted. But it's a terrific--it's going to be a terrific area for business. So, under the right circumstances, you could see us with a lot of money there.
QUICK: What was the stock that you made the bid on?
BUFFETT: Oh, surprise, surprise. I never thought you'd ask.
QUINTANILLA: Nice, Beck.
BUFFETT: No, that--I have sort of a mind blankout after I learned...
QUICK: But it's not--it's not impossible to say that, yeah, you are continuing to look at stocks and you would make a bid from time to time if you found something that interested you.
BUFFETT: We made--we made a half a billion dollar bid on something, right.
QUICK: You made a half a billion dollar bid?
BUFFETT: Dollar bid, right.
QUICK: OK, if you don't remember the--if you don't remember the stock, what was the industry?
QUINTANILLA: Oh sure, now you tell us.
BUFFETT: Yeah, it's bigger than, yeah--you're good, but...
QUICK: But not that good. No dice on this one? All right, well, Carl...
BUFFETT: She thought she'd get me at 5 in the morning, folks, and I'd be punchy.
QUICK: Yes, and maybe you wouldn't quite be on the defensive just yet. But, Carl, we do have about two and a half more hours where we can try and work on him and squeeze more details out, so...
QUINTANILLA: Yeah, I've heard--I've heard that if you get enough cherry Cokes in him, he will spill everything.
QUICK: We've got them lined up.
BUFFETT: It acts like truth serum, yeah. There's no question about that.
QUICK: Yeah, well we've got those cherry Cokes lined up, and we'll keep them coming. All right, folks, coming up, we're going to go from Wall Street to Washington, as a new movie is out there creating some shock waves this morning. This movie is all about debt and why it could be putting the future of our country at risk. We'll get to the men behind the film who'll be joining us when SQUAWK BOX returns live from America's heartland.