Warren Buffet: "Stay away from Bitcoin"

[st4nl3y]

stay away from Buffet and his theories if you don't understand them. just keep investing in bitcoin to prove him wrong.

[bountygiver]

because he fears that people investing in bitcoin will devalue his assets?
lets take a moment and remind ourselves that everyone is selfish.

[David M]

I used to have a lot of time for Buffett.

Not any more though and it has nothing to do with his position on Bitcoin.

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch - 5th largest investment
Wells Fargo & Co - Largest Investment
JP Morgan - Owns shares

His influence in bringing about TARP to save his own arse is the pinnacle of cronyism.

[IrishFutbol]

I used to have a lot of time for Buffett.

Not any more though and it has nothing to do with his position on Bitcoin.

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch - 5th largest investment
Wells Fargo & Co - Largest Investment
JP Morgan - Owns shares

His influence in bringing about TARP to save his own arse is the pinnacle of cronyism.

Like it or not, TARP and the other bailouts saved everyone's arse.

[freedomno1]

"Buffett also said he would steer clear of bitcoin. Buffett said the cryptocurrency is an effective payment system, but “so is a check.” The idea that bitcoin has some “intrinsic value is just a joke.”

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/03/14/warren-buffett-dont-dump-stocks-on-china-or-ukraine-and-stay-away-from-bitcoin/?mod=sfmw

Well... It's too late for some of us to stay away now.

Remember, this is the same guy that said to avoid investing in internet companies.

I respect Warrens opinion he doesn't invest in the tech sphere because he doesn't put money in things he does not understand
Since he doesn't understand bitcoin he will miss it like the rise of the internet age
But for him it does not matter his fortune is from doing what he knows best so I would say to let him be

[David M]

Like it or not, TARP and the other bailouts saved everyone's arse.

I call bullshit and please define "everyone"?

Depositors and creditors should have been completely wiped out.  No exceptions.
The bastion of capitalism turned into a corporate/crony cluster fuck.

If you want to throw Keynes and a social conscience into it for the retirees and "mum & pop" investors, the US could have written checks for $0.50 in the $1 for anyone with assets under $2million.

The printing done each month to "save us" could have bought you a complete universal health care system for everyone of your citizens with change left over.

[kooke]

His analogy comparing bitcoin to a paper check doesn't fit. Bitcoin is a more than a money transfer system; it's a protocol within itself.

Edit: And it has the potential to cut into the profits of the corrupt banking system. That alone makes it valuable to me.

[Bit_Happy]

This is harsher than his internet company diss.  That was more along the lines of "I personally wouldn't invest in a business I couldn't understand".

He also made his internet comment right before the tech crash in the late 1990s...

The tech crash didn't happen until after the 90's were over.
If he made the comment "right before the tech crash", then we are talking the year 2000 (late Spring/Early summer)

[IrishFutbol]

Like it or not, TARP and the other bailouts saved everyone's arse.

I call bullshit and please define "everyone"?

Depositors and creditors should have been completely wiped out.  No exceptions.
The bastion of capitalism turned into a corporate/crony cluster fuck.

If you want to throw Keynes and a social conscience into it for the retirees and "mum & pop" investors, the US could have written checks for $0.50 in the $1 for anyone with assets under $2million.

The printing done each month to "save us" could have bought you a complete universal health care system for everyone of your citizens with change left over.

1. Picture a complete freeze in lending, and a lack of access to cash.  No one can buy cars or houses.  People with no cash on hand couldn't buy anything.  Stores can't stock shelves or pay employees.  Forget just the banks, every company from GE to local mom and pop shops would be under within a month.  Tens of millions would suddenly find themselves out of work.  You'd have mass riots in every major city in the nation.  If we were lucky, we would be living in a state of martial law.

2. And as for your ridiculous solution, is this something you actually spent more than 2 seconds to think up?  Honestly, how long do you think it would take for the government create this plan, to identify these people, and to mail them checks.  A few months?  A year?

3. What money was spent?  In the end, the banks paid the money back, so what money could have been "saved" for a better use?

[verdun2003]

"Stay away from bitcoin" if.. you want to stay away from profits

[SLAPMODE]

THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS HE COULD WISH BITCOIN INTO THE CORN FIELD ANYDAY!!! ~HE MUST LIKE US !!!

;-)

JMHO!

[Mobo]

Remember, this is the same guy that said to avoid investing in internet companies.

All he says is invalid.

[Bit_Happy]

Dear Mr Buffet,

you should read this:

bitcoin is:
1. Scarce
2. Durable
3. Portable
4. Divisible
5. Impossible to counterfeit
6. Fungible ( any 1 BTC has the same value as any other )
7. Easy to keep safe ( contrary to popular belief, it easy to print out a paper wallet...)
8. Shiny ( yes the digital bits that make up a bitcoin are VERY shiny)
9. all of the above. + very shiny

Fiat is:
1. Definitely not  Scarce, ( mage inflation in the money supply is monumental )
2. Not Durable
3. NOT Portable... compare it to bitcoin, ( try sending 1 million dollars across the globe, try sending 10 cents. then try again but with bitcoin AHhhhh you starting to get it now eh )
5.  Impossible to counterfeit LMAO
6. Fungible... ya maybe...
7. Easy to keep safe? ya all it requires is huge banks, and even then....  the only reason it works is the fact the government has no problem printing (out of thin air ITS MAGIC!) as much money as they need to be solvent any time they need it, you do know what a bailout is right?
8. Shiny? Its has cocaine all over it so no... not shiny
the only thing that fiat  has going for it is that its widely accepted, for now!

the markets need not care about your lack of understanding.

This post will be worth a Billion $'s someday.   

[David M]

1. Picture a complete freeze in lending, and a lack of access to cash.  No one can buy cars or houses.  People with no cash on hand couldn't buy anything.  Stores can't stock shelves or pay employees.  Forget just the banks, every company from GE to local mom and pop shops would be under within a month.  Tens of millions would suddenly find themselves out of work.  You'd have mass riots in every major city in the nation.  If we were lucky, we would be living in a state of martial law.

This entire premise is based on the fact that new players will not enter the space that just appeared.

Riots? Martial Law?  You have got to be kidding.  This reeks of statist fear-mongering.

Not even the great depression brought on Martial Law.

2. And as for your ridiculous solution, is this something you actually spent more than 2 seconds to think up?  Honestly, how long do you think it would take for the government create this plan, to identify these people, and to mail them checks.  A few months?  A year?

As opposed to giving reward to the stupid and losers?  Now that was ridiculous and down right evil.

And as for your time frame, there is this tech called a database that  Dr Codd nailed for us in 1969.

As a real world example, the Australian government gave out $800 dollars to every tax payer directly into their bank account within 3 weeks.  It's not hard.
It was a perfect Friedman helicopter drop.  Minimal implementation cost and only a few dead people wasted it.

3. What money was spent?  In the end, the banks paid the money back, so what money could have been "saved" for a better use?

The opportunity costs that the US lost by keeping the dead wood alive is immeasurable.  You are currently experiencing a "long slow painful recovery" due to propping up zombie businesses.

[Beliathon]

Whenever I want tech advice, I always ask a senior citizen.  

ROFL QFT!

Wanna know another Buffet quote?

"When others are greedy, be fearful. When others are fearful, be greedy."
-Warren Fuckin Buffet

I think the old man should consider his own advice in this matter.

[leancuisine]

Warren Buffett is being generious with his praise of Bitcoin.  Bitcoin is the tulip of the 21st century, destined to be obliterated by a better-implemented altcoin.

Oh my god, another florist. Please explain to me what has a flower to do with Bitcoin protocol? Can you send with your tulip on sunday at 1pm money from China to USA without middle-man within 1 hour almost for free? No? So stop comparing it...you guys with your tulips. If you really believe it is the same, why are you even here man/woman? Your comparison is just stupid, i am sorry to being rude.

The 'tulip' that most people refer to is the tulip bulb bubble, or tulip mania, that occurred in Europe. The peak of the bubble was in March 1637, with "some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman." The tulip bulb bubble and the potential Bitcoin bubble.

More info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania or http://www.investopedia.com/features/crashes/crashes2.asp

[Nathonas]

Normally I'd agree with him because he's one of the best investors/economists on the planet but...in this case he just sounds like a rambling senior citizen that doesn't understand the internet and its related technologies.

[AnonyMint]

"Buffett also said he would steer clear of bitcoin. Buffett said the cryptocurrency is an effective payment system, but “so is a check.” The idea that bitcoin has some “intrinsic value is just a joke.”

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/03/14/warren-buffett-dont-dump-stocks-on-china-or-ukraine-and-stay-away-from-bitcoin/?mod=sfmw

Well... It's too late for some of us to stay away now.

Remember, this is the same guy that said to avoid investing in internet companies.

I respect Warrens opinion he doesn't invest in the tech sphere because he doesn't put money in things he does not understand
Since he doesn't understand bitcoin he will miss it like the rise of the internet age
But for him it does not matter his fortune is from doing what he knows best so I would say to let him be

Normally I'd agree with him because he's one of the best investors/economists on the planet but...in this case he just sounds like a rambling senior citizen that doesn't understand the internet and its related technologies.

Indeed the old tangible capital world is going away folks... and Buffet will die just-in-time to fade away with it...

I also knew in 1999 that the dot.com crash was coming because I was trying to buy PPC advertising for my CoolPage.com (had million users at that time, roughly 1% of the internet) and what I saw was the ROI on advertising was negative for any profitable business, thus there was massive overinvestment driving the ad prices too high.

So when Homepage.com offered me $1 million in stock options to take over CoolPage.com, I declined. I took a couple hundred thousand instead in a non-exclusive license, and reaped another 7 years of sales ongoing.

But Buffet missed investing in numerous internet companies that have made others into $billionaires.

The model of business he invests in is dying. We are leaving the tangible capital age and entering the knowledge age, wherein you don't need large stored capital to launch a business. For example the 3D printer (which can print itself) will eventually obliterate factories, retail stores, and shipped goods. There are already 3D printers which can print multiple materials on the same object.

Also in the past knowledge was captured by industrial stored capital, because one needed physical production and distribution. Stored capital is a claim of future human labor or production. But now for example factories will be automated with robots, so the industrialists will depend on the knowledge workers.

The knowledge workers can say "fuck you" to $billions, we don't need it. All that stored capital is becoming useless and won't be able to find a home. It is what you know in your brain that becomes capital.

When the $223 trillion global debt bomb (with $1000 trillion in derivatives to hold it up, and another $1000 trillion in unfunded social liabilities promised to the boomers) implodes circa 2016ish as the marginal-utility-of-debt has become negative right about now and the BRICs are starting to collapse (with Europe and Japan to follow by next year and USA in 2016), the all those people who are useless in the Knowledge Age will be unemployable. And those $billionaires will lose their net worth relative to the capital in our brains which will grow orders-of-magnitude in value (what we can produce and buy with our efforts).

Oxford U predicts 47% of all existing jobs will be erased by automation within 19 years (20 years from last year when the research was published).

[Corazon79]

Which programming languages do you consider future proof, Anonymint? Obviously people will have their favourites and it depends on the job, I understand that. But I'd like to know your views.

I also listened to your recordings earlier on. Were you cut off at the end? It seemed like there was more to come. But the recording ended abruptly.

[bananas]

it is funny how people here think they have more background than warren buffet