Doug Kass says he’s ready to take on billionaire investor Warren Buffett at his annual meeting, according to Reuters. He said in April that he was spending an average of 10 hours preparing for each question so that he could face off as Buffett’s bear at the meeting. More than 35,000 people go to Omaha every year to attend Buffett’s meeting.
Warren Buffett To Doug Kass: Be the Bear
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) is holding its annual investor meeting on Saturday, and Buffett himself handpicked Kass to be his first bear at the meeting. Kass will be the one asking bearish questions of Buffett and his executives. He’s been shorting shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) for some weeks, making a bet that the company’s stock will drop.
Doug Kass, along with two other panelists, will join with journalists and shareholders to ask Buffett and his vice chairman Charlie Munger questions about their strategies. Kass hasn’t said just how large his short of Berkshire is, but he calls it an average size, and he initiated it not long before Buffett invited him to come and be the bear at the annual meeting.
At this point Kass said he doesn’t want to give Buffett or Munger any ideas about what he will ask them, but in the past, he has raised concerns about the size of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) and also Buffett’s age. He’s now 82, and Kass knows, as other investors should as well, that it will be nearly impossible to replace the insight of Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha.”
Kass: Also Bearish On The Economy, Stocks
Kass has said he believes that the U.S. will see another recession by sometime next year—contrary to what most investors and economists say. He believes there’s a 50 percent probability of that happening. Kass is also shorting equities and U.S. Treasuries.
