In a taped interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick airing this morning on Squawk Box, Warren Buffett talked about the state of the economy. According to Buffet, the economy “hasn’t gotten worse” but also hasn’t “gotten much better” over the past three months.
Asked if there a risk of a second downturn, Buffet said that “the odds are very much against getting significantly worse….in terms of problems that we’ve identified and are working with, we’ve got more to come, but we’re…past the critical point.”
“We have not bounced…but we’ve quit going down,” Buffet said.
Buffett also said he doesn’t expect a double-dip recession, and that he sees significant improvement in residential real estate: “I think we’re certainly—we’re through the worst of it in residential real estate in all probability. And….the reason is we’re building a lot fewer houses and we’re…and we’re forming households, so that solves itself over time. Doesn’t do it in a day or a week, but it solves itself. So we’re further on that.”
Here is the video clip of the portion of Becky’s interview. The complete interview will be available here as soon as it gets posted by CNBC.
Buffet on Lehman and AIG
