Warren Buffett Watch

Published: Wednesday, 24 Jun 2009 | 4:05 PM ET

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Warren Buffett appeared live on CNBC with Becky Quick today, Wednesday, June 24, 2009. 

Buffett told us the economy is in a "shambles" with no signs of a recovery anytime soon.  He also criticized Apple for not disclosing earlier that CEO Steve Jobs had received a liver transplant.

This is a complete transcript of their conversation:

BECKY QUICK: We are here at Smith & Wollensky where Warren Buffett is paying off last year's winner for this auction.  This is, right now there's another auction underway.  And this is the tenth year in a row he's been doing this.  Warren, we want to thank you very much for joining us.

WARREN BUFFETT:  It's a pleasure.

BECKY:  You've been doing this for 10 years, raising money for the Glide Foundation.  Why the Glide Foundation?

BUFFETT:  I think it's probably as remarkable a social organization as there is in the country, and it's run by Cecil Williams, who, for 45 years, has taken people that have hit bottom and said, 'You're still a worthwhile individual and we're going to do what we can for you in terms of housing, medicine, vocational training and you're going to become the kind of person that you can become.'   He believes in people and he carries it out every day and I've never found a more effective place at lifting people from bottom.

BECKY:  This year's winner, last year's winner showing up today, Zhao Danyang, who is someone who paid 2.1 million dollars.  That's a remarkable amount of money that's out there.  Last year, obviously, the markets were in a very different place than they are this year.  The auction is underway.  I know the bidding goes through Sunday.  (Note: Bidding actually ends this coming Friday at 10p ET).  Do you think someone can bid as much as you saw last year?

BUFFETT:  (Laughs.)  Well it surprised me last year.  They have qualified a number of bidders that are good for very big figures.  They make sure of that beforehand.  So we'll see what happens.  (Laughs.)  Two-point-one million is a pretty good number to shoot for.  I hope I don't have to leave a 10 percent tip at the end of the lunch.  (Laughs.)

BECKY:  The last time we sat down to talk to you was on May 4, and at that point you told us that you think we're in an economic war right now.  How much progress do you think we've made in that war?

BUFFETT:  Well, it's been pretty flat.  I get figures on 70-odd businesses, a lot of them daily.  Everything that I see about the economy is that we've had no bounce.  The financial system was really where the crisis was last September and October, and that's been surmounted and that's enormously important.   But in terms of the economy coming back, it takes a while.  There were a lot of excesses to be wrung out and that process is still underway and it looks to me like it will be underway for quite a while.  In the (Berkshire Hathaway) annual report, I said the economy would be in a shambles this year and probably well beyond.  I'm afraid that's true.

BECKY:  We hear people on our air all the time who talk about the 'green shoots' that they're seeing.  Are you seeing any of those green shoots?

BUFFETT:  (Laughs.)  I looked.  I wasn't seeing anything.  I had a cataract operation on my left eye about a month ago and I thought maybe now I'll be able to see green shoots.  We're not seeing them.  Whether it's retailing, manufacturing, wherever.  We have a big utility operation.  Industrial demand is down like we've never seen it for a simple thing like electricity.  So it hasn't happened yet.  It will happen.  I want to emphasize that.  But it hasn't happened yet.

BECKY:  Earlier this year you also told us that you think Washington and the Obama administration should be paying attention to jobs, that's the number one, jobs and the economy is the number one, the number two, and the number three job that they should be doing.  Has there been progress made at all on that front?

BUFFETT:  Well, they're doing thing but they take awhile to have an effect.  They're doing things on a lot of fronts.  But you can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant, you know.  (Laughs.)  It just doesn't work that way.  So you can be throwing things at the economy and they will have an impact, but they haven't had much impact yet.  And unemployment will go high and it will lag the turn up of the economy.

BECKY:  But has Washington done enough that you think they can turn their sights to other problems that exist?

BUFFETT:  Well, they've turned their sights to other problems, but this problem is not yet solved.  And it's the most important problem we have.

BECKY:  It continues to be?  You don't think any of the urgency has come away?

BUFFETT: No, I don't think the urgency has come away.  The urgency has moved away from a total meltdown of the financial sector which we faced last fall.  I've never seen anything like that.  But I would give enormous credit to the people there.  (Federal Reserve Chairman) Bernanke did a fabulous job.  We were right at the point where people lost faith in money-market funds, when commercial paper stopped being issued.  People would be having a problem meeting their payroll, very big companies, if that hadn't gotten addressed very quickly.  And I give credit to people for doing that.  So that part, we've moved past that particular period.  We haven't got the economy going again.

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