Fortune's Buffett Compilation

By Jennifer Hopfinger
April 24, 2008 01:49 PM

In troubled economic times like these, who couldn’t use some sage advice from the Oracle of Omaha? In its April 28th issue, Fortune magazine delivers the comforting musings of Warren Buffett, the head of Berkshire Hathaway and the richest person in the world. In the cover story, “What Warren Thinks,” writer Nicholas Varchaver relays what the investing guru has to say about the economy and the credit crisis.

Several times a year, Buffett invites business students to Omaha for question-and-answer sessions. Varchaver tagged along in early April with 150 students from Buffett’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and put together excerpts of Buffett’s words of wisdom. Nothing earth-shattering, really, but coming from him, well worth reporting. His remarks include:

• “So wild things happen in the markets. And the markets have not gotten more rational over the years. They've become more followed. But when people panic, when fear takes over, or when greed takes over, people react just as irrationally as they have in the past.”
• “I think we've got fabulous capital markets in this country, and they get screwed up often enough to make them even more fabulous. I mean, you don't want a capital market that functions perfectly if you're in my business.”
• “The American economy is going to do fine. But it won't do fine every year and every week and every month … It's a positive-sum game, long term. And the only way an investor can get killed is by high fees or by trying to outsmart the market.”

Buffett seemed to be saying that everything’s a mess right now, but that’s OK, it’ll all work out in the end. Fortune’s interesting compilation of insights from the legendary, folksy investor couldn’t have come at a better time, because as Buffett cautions in the article, things could still get worse before they get better.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism