“If people give me ties, I accept,” says Warren Buffett. He also says the biggest risk-on trade he knows is to hold cash.
Transcript:
we are live in omaha speaking to warren buffett. here now becky quick. we are actually live in carter lake, iowa this morning where we’re speaking to berkshire hathaway chairman and ceo warren buffett. we’re here at the hollywood diner. we’ve been to a lot of the places you frequent in the past but in is a place you’ve taken a lot of people as well. yeah. for one, it’s handy to the airport, for another its hambnd strawberry shakes are terrific. i brought bono here, jimmy buffett and i brought jay-z. the tie you’re wearing was given to you by jay-z. i’m not sure he gave it to me. i kept telling him i admired it and finally he took it off and gave it to me. i tried it again when he opened up his night club and he said you don’t spend money on clothes like that. you talk your way into thing. if people want to give me ties, i accept. what about obama, didn’t you ask him for one, too? i didn’t ask him. i just wore this tie that looked like it had been through a washing machine, had threads hanging off it and he said i can’t let you leave the white house like that and he gave me a tie. i’m learning more and more about how people — it works. a rich guy never has to pay for anything. that is the jay-z tie you’re wearing right there. this is the jay-z tie. it doesn’t look as good on me as it does on him but it’s my best tie. we’ll put it that way. we’ve been watching oil prices. as we’ve seen the risk-off trades, oil prices have been coming down. this started happening on friday after we got the lousy jobs number. now it’s trading at 97 and change, just below $98. you’ve got a big stake in con — conoco. how do you see it playing in investments? i haven’t the slightest idea, that’s why i shouldn’t own conoco. risk off, if it’s selling and going into cash, that’s risk on for me. cash is as risky an asset you can own over time. that is the biggest risk-on trade you can have is to own cash. joe, did you. did you get those two pictures i sent over, beck? let me see. joe during the break sent out a couple of pictures of his wife penelope with warren. here it is. we may show that. because he’s got his wallet out. can we keep looking at this? i want to keep looking at this. exactly. for stocks to watch, instead of the animal orchestra, if it’s all right with him, but we did find out some other things on break, too. i’m happy for warren. let’s not get too deeply into all of it. i’ve never seen her look happier. i know it. he’s looking at the wallet — he opened up the wallet and moths flew out. it hadn’t been used in so long and there was like $1 in there i think. i’d forgotten the combination t. hi a little problem. with conoco stock, you stay you maybe you shouldn’t have bought it. it’s still a big position for you. the truth is i made a mistake in that. why? because i paid too much. i have no special knowledge in terms of oil positions. conoco looked very cheap and they were repurchasing their shares and unfortunately they spent a lot of money on gas prices and gas did not do as well as oil. you see people moving into this. recently delta got into the idea where it’s buying a refinery because it pays so much in jet fuel costs. what do you think of that move? we buy a lot of diesel fuel, too but i’d rather be in the railroad business than be in the diesel fuel business. i mean, if i like milk, i don’t have to buy a cow basically. so you wouldn’t yourself look at that at something you would — i think if you’re in a business that you know and understand and you buy goods from other people, you should probably stick with the business that you know and understand, let the other people run that business. you know, becoming fully integrated in some way. just take the newspaper business. you don’t have — it it all comes out on newsprint. newsprint has been a terrible me newspapers went and bought newsprint facilities but they never held any parties afterwards.
