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Warren Buffett Chides Banks for Role in Market Mayhem

Calls meltdown 'poetic justice'

By Zach Samalin,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 7, 2008 2:42 AM CST

(Newser) – Billionaire Warren Buffett thumbed his nose at eminent investment banks today, claiming they caused their own demise in the subprime mortgage meltdown. "It's a little poetic justice, in that the people that brewed this toxic Kool-Aid found themselves drinking a lot of it in the end," Buffett said.

Not without a hint of schadenfreude, Buffett reiterated his trademark pessimism over the fate of the dollar, forecasting protracted failure in upcoming years, the Telegraph reports. Buffett maintains the market isn't totally floored: "Money is available, and it's really quite cheap," he said. "It's what I might call 'dumb money,' of which there was plenty around a year ago," that's dried up.

Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007, before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the federal estate tax.   (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007, before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the federal estate tax. (AP...   (Associated Press)
Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is seen following a news conference in Omaha, Neb. in this May 6, 2007 file photo.  Buffett is on the witness list for the prosecution in a trial that is to begin in New Haven, Conn., Jan. 7, 2008.  (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, file)
Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is seen following a news conference in Omaha, Neb. in this May 6, 2007 file photo. Buffett is on the witness list for the prosecution in a trial that is...   (Associated Press)
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett gestures at a fundraiser for Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. in San Francisco, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett gestures at a fundraiser for Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. in San Francisco, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)   (Associated Press)
Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Business Wire%u2019s parent company, speaks at the Toronto Board of Trade in Toronto, on Wednesday Feb. 6, 2008, to mark the opening of Business Wire%u2019s expansion into Canada.  (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ashley Hutcheson.
Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Business Wire%u2019s parent company, speaks at the Toronto Board of Trade in Toronto, on Wednesday Feb. 6, 2008, to mark the opening of Business Wire%u2019s...   (Associated Press)
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