BROKAW:

A lot of people are concerned that the government is just throwing money down a rat hole with the bailout program, with the 700 billion dollars of troubled assets. And the kinds of money that we're handing out to Detroit and other places. Is there an economic component to all of this that will pay off at some point?

BUFFETT:

Well, that's exactly what we did in 1933. I mean, in 1933, when Roosevelt came in, there was something called the Reconstruction Finance Corp, RFC. Actually, Hoover enac-- it got enacted under Hoover in '32. But-- Roosevelt appointed Jesse Jones in 1933. And they put preferred stocks into the banks. They concentrated on banks, but they went into other things.

Incidentally, Jesse Jones was-- when he put that money in, he told 'em what the compensation rate was gonna be too. I mean, he was a tough tsar. And it helped take the United States out of a depression. I mean, the RFC was-- was an important component. And I'm sure they got criticized at the start. And they said, "People, you're throwing money into the wrong things and all that."

I'm sure he made mistakes. But when you're fighting a war, I mean you don't expect every single maneuver to be a huge success. What you want to do is win the war. And-- and the-- it's a component making sure that the financial system does not get dysfunctional, which was-- it was-- it was there almost. That's an important part of it.

And there is no way-- you may want to-- you may-- you maybe want to punish Wall Street or something (UNINTEL). But you can't-- you can't separate Wall Street, Main Street, side streets. We are connected. This is one big community. And-- and you better have credit flowing.

BROKAW:

But who are our other allies in this war? When-- Bill Clinton took office, for example-- he was helped a lot by your friend Bill Gates and the other people in Silicon Valley who created a whole new industry that had an enormous economic impact on this country.

As you look down the road or over the horizon, where do we get help now? Is it gonna be from Asia? Is it gonna be from China and what they're doing? And can green industries do as much as a lot of their proponents say that they will for the American economy?

BUFFETT:

It'll be from the American people, big time. I mean, when you think about it, you know, you go back to the mid 1800's or something. And people thought, you know, if you had done-- if you-- come along with-- well, it was later than that. The tractors or the combines or that sort of thing. And put all these people out of work. But they found other things to do. Could I have predicted that the motion picture industry would have sprung up?

Or the electric utility industry? Or-- to make it later, the semi conductors or software? The American genius is that it frees up millions and millions of people with all kinds of potential. Sometimes, potential they didn't even know. To come up with things that I can't dream up myself. I will guarantee you that 30 or 40 years from now, you will see all kind of things being turned out in the United States that people hunger for but that-- they couldn't conceive of them themselves.

But somebody did. That-- that it was-- it was out there. Inspired by-- partly inspired by the system we have. Because we have-- we do have a-- we have a market system that-- that people are-- goods and services. And a lot of people figure out ways to get it to 'em. And we got the-- we-- we-- you know we have equality of opportunity to quite a degree. Not perfect. But-- but we can-- we can let a fellow like Jack Welsh, you know, end up running General Electric.

And-- and on the other hand, we got Mike Tyson fighting for the heavyweight championship. And we don't have Jack fighting for the heavyweight championship. You know? (LAUGHTER) And Mike Tyson running General Electric. We get people in the right jobs doing the right things with the right talents. And that will continue to exist. And that will deliver goods and services you and I can't dream of.

BROKAW:

And how long will it be before Warren Buffet is tooling around Omaha in an electric car?

BUFFETT:

Well, we have this investment -- (LAUGHTER) in a Chinese company. I'm going to have-- I'm going to have an electric car at the annual meeting at Berkshire next year.

BROKAW:

And is that gonna be the future of this country as well?

BUFFETT:

Well, I-- I think an electric car is-- is definitely part of the future. I mean I-- it-- it makes so much sense. I mean, the battery, obviously, is the big stumbling block. But we-- we'll figure out how to do that. I mean, we figured out a lot of things in this-- I-- I will predict that within-- certainly within five years, there is a-- a reasonably priced electric car that will go a long way with a plug in arrangement.

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