Warren Buffett Chides Banks for Role in Market Mayhem

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. (More Warren Buffett stories.)