Buffett Reports $200M Drop, Blames Recession

Warren Buffett told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders today that the company's first-quarter earnings will fall to $1.7 billion from $1.9 billion last year, reports Bloomberg. At the annual meeting, Buffett said the recession “significantly to drastically affected” the company's bottom line. Full earnings details will be released Friday.

During other parts of the meeting, Buffett held out little hope for a "quick rebound in retail, manufacturing, and services businesses" and predicted "unending losses" for newspapers, but he said he saw signs of a stabilization in housing, reports the Wall Street Journal. He also returned to a familiar theme, railing against "false and nutty" investment practices in modern banking. (More Warren Buffett stories.)