Buffett Expects Markets To Get Worse

September 26, 2002
By Jon Ashworth

WARREN BUFFETT, the billionaire American investor, has given warning that stock markets will get worse before they get better –– but he still believes that equities are a good long-term investment.

In an interview, the so-called “Sage of Omaha’’ said that the world economy is paying the price for dot-com hype.

Mr Buffett said: “We’re in a long correction, because we had an incredible ‘mass hallucination’, ‘bubble’, whatever you want to call it. That carries a price with it, which has not been fully paid but which we’ve made a good downpayment on so far.”

He added: “It’s only in the rinse cycle that you find out how dirty the laundry’s been. We’re in the rinse cycle now.”

Mr Buffett has kept his faith in the markets. He said: “Long term, I’ve always been a bull. The American economy’s going to do very well. The UK economy’s going to do very well over time. But you get these periods when markets disconnect from the real world. We had a situation where the markets became totally disconnected from business reality. This was a pretty extreme case, but they get back in sync after a while. If you own equities for 25 years or 30 years, you will get a result that parallels that of business.”

Mr Buffett said that unscrupulous US executives took advantage of the late-1990s stock market hype. He said: “You had an erosion of accounting standards. You had an erosion, to some extent, in executive behaviour. But during a period when everybody ‘believes’, people who are inclined to take advantage of other people can get away with a lot.”

Mr Buffett was speaking while in London to promote NetJets, his fractional ownership jet operator. He is seeking acquisitions in the UK, but ruled himself out as a bidder for British Energy, the troubled nuclear power group.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-427302,00.html