Last night Warren Buffet was on the Charlie Rose show on PBS, for the full hour. He is one of the richest men in the world, his estimated net worth is $62 Billion dollars, and his company Berkshire Hathaway is worth $273 Billion dollars. The Company averaged an annual return in excess of 21% to its shareholders for the last 42 years.
He is one of the smartest men in the investment business, guys who work for the Fed call him for advice, and people have even paid $2 million dollars just to have lunch with him to get financial advice. I watched the entire hour and he said some very interesting things.
1) He said the federal tax rate on the wealthy is too low. He also said that right now he pays a lower percent in taxes than the woman who emptys the garbage can in his office, and that his secretary pays a higher percent of her income in taxes than he does. And he called that ridiculous.
2) One other point he made is that there will be a 400 to 500 Billion dollar deficit this year in America. He said who is going to pay it, the taxpayers of course. Then he said who should pay it, the wealthy, who can afford it, or the lower and middle class taxpayers who can not afford it. He said the wealthy should pay it, because they can, and they should.
3) He said the Capitol Gains tax should be raised from 15 percent to at least 25 percent. He told Charlie Rose that 15 percent is too low, and that 25 percent is just about right. Charlie said Obama wants to raise it to 25 percent, and Warren Buffet said he agrees with that rate.
4) He agrees with the $1,000 Obama stimulus plan. He thinks it is a good idea, and the $1,000 stimulus should only go to the lower and middle class. Basically he agreed with everything Obama wants to do.
5) And he agrees that the bottom 95% of taxpayers should get a tax cut, which is excatly what Obama plans to do if he wins.
Warrent Buffet basically agrees with the entire Obama economic plan.
