Warren Buffett sat down with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office at the White House today (Wednesday).

According to a White House official, the two men met "to discuss the economy and our ongoing efforts to work with the private sector to stimulate growth and create jobs."

CNBC's John Harwood also reports that Obama noticed Buffett's tie was frayed, prompting the president to give Buffett a new, gift-wrapped, red tie.

In this photograph of the session, taken and released by the White House, Buffett is wearing a red tie.  Harwood, however, tells me he believes the new tie stayed in its gift box, so we're presumably looking at the disreputable neckware Buffett was wearing when he arrived for the meeting.

White House Photo by Pete Souza

We also don't know what's on the papers Buffett is showing President Obama.

Buffett supported Obama's campaign for the White House against Republican John McCain.  While the two men publicly toured the Washington Post's newsroom just before Inauguration Day, we haven't seen them together since.

Buffett has generally praised Obama's leadership, with some reservations.

While Buffett has warned that inflation could become a severe problem in the future, he still believes the government's massive fiscal stimulus program was necessary to protect the economy from a short-term collapse.

Buffett told us in a March 1 live appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box that he's still "very glad" he voted for Obama.

BUFFETT: That has not changed. I think the problems he's run into are, you know, are monumental and particularly in terms of the economy. I mean, you know, we're running huge deficits now that--which we should be running from a Keynesian standpoint to try and get this economy moving, but they have consequences, too. I mean, I do not envy the job of being president, but I give Obama high marks.

Last December, Ancestry.com reported the two men are very distantly related.

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