Economy

Buffett Optimistic Despite War Talk -- Except for on Bitcoin

Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) appeared to shrug off concerns over Russian military movement in Ukraine’s Crimean region Monday and offered a bullish outlook on the U.S. economy and the stock market in a wide-ranging interview on CNBC. Buffett said:

The one thing you can be quite sure of is, if we went into some kind of very major war, the value of money would go down. That’s happened in virtually every war I’m aware of. The last thing you’d want to do is hold money during a war. You might want to own a farm, you might want to own an apartment house, you might want to own securities. During World War II the stock market advanced.

The Oracle of Omaha said he feels good owning shares of iconic tech giant International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), even if its revenue trends have been weaker than anticipated. He said he opposed breaking up PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) as some activist investors have pushed for, and that he would not rule out an initial public offering of H.J. Heinz sometime in the future.

But his tone was completely different when it came to Bitcoin. He said it is “not a currency.” He called it speculative and said it would not surprise him if Bitcoin was not around in 10 or 20 years.

Buffett’s appearance on CNBC followed the release of his company’s latest earnings report and letter to shareholders over the weekend.

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