I liked and I told them to take out a very, very long-term mortgage. And I would say the same thing today. It’s not quite as attractive as it was a year ago, but it’s still an attractive holding, but only if you’re going to keep it for a long time
CLAMAN: Well in part because of what the Fed has done and kept the low interest rates, but is the Fed continuing on this easing plan at their own peril? At some point, with GDP looking at about 2.5 percent, still very slow but at least it’s growth, how long can they continue this large scale asset purchase plan or should they perhaps?
BUFFETT: I don’t know the answer to that. I do know that it surprised me how long we’ve done it already and it has had no inflationary effect. And of course I would expect that — I’ve been — I’ve been wrong on expecting inflation for a some time, but I would say if you keep building the Fed’s balance sheet and building the reserves of banks and so on, A, I think it’s an interesting question how do you reverse that and, secondly, I do think it has inflationary consequences down the road. But I’ve been wrong.
CLAMAN: Well, maybe it’s Ben Bernanke’s problem now. But maybe, as you said at the meeting, he might just pass the baton to the next guy to deal with it.
BUFFETT: Well, if I were the president, I’d have him keep the baton.
CLAMAN: As I look at the issues that your company really has to look at, what will be the number one issue that your board is talking about today? I want to let our viewers know that right after Mr. Buffett and the group that we’re going to have here leave, they have a board meeting right upstairs at Kiewit Plaza. Number one issue they’re going to discuss?
BUFFETT: We always discuss succession. That’s a main issue. And we want to have and we do have and we’ll meet and talk about it again today, but we have 100 percent agreement on who should take over Berkshire if I die tonight. And we’ve got multiple people who could do the job and the number one candidate is a unanimous choice, but we’ll talk about that subject.
We have got a new member of the board joining us this year, Meryl Witmer, and she will be part of that discussion, and hear everybody’s views.
CLAMAN: OK, so he just outed our mystery guest. Meryl Witmer will be joining us in a Fox Business exclusive coming up. It’s her first interview as the new board member, having just been voted in. She’ll join us in just a few minutes.
But Warren, talking about succession, one of the questions at the shareholder meeting was is it Ajit Jain who runs your insurance business? Ajit is a delightful guy. You only call him out so many times because you keep saying he’s so brilliant. One of the things you and Charlie didn’t say was that no, it’s not Ajit.
BUFFETT: No and we didn’t say, yes, it was Ajit. We didn’t say, no, it wasn’t anybody else, or yes, it was anybody else. No, it’s not a subject we discuss publicly. And as I mentioned at the meeting, we’ve got $50 Billion invested in four companies — Wells Fargo, American Express, IBM and Coca-Cola. I don’t know who the next CEO of any of those four companies is going to be and I never have known
CLAMAN: Well, there you are because we’ll ask the board member himself. We’ve got Bill Gates coming in, one of the esteemed board members of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B).
Hey, Bill, you sit on Warren’s board, but he doesn’t sit on Microsoft’s board. See, now he’s laughing. Why not?
BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MICROSOFT: Warren’s time is very valuable and we’re a technology company, so it might not be his favorite activity trying to guess where things are going in technology.
BUFFETT: I would not be worth the director’s fee
CLAMAN: So exactly. Basically what you’re saying is he’s not somebody who would add to sort of the technological cognoscente that’s there?
GATES: Well, I don’t think he’d choose to spend time on it. There are aspects of it that don’t play to his deep, deep strengths.
BUFFETT: Wow.
