Warren Buffett: I've Had Cataract Surgery And I Still Can't See Any Green Shoots (CNBC Clip)

I've always appreciated Warren Buffett's honesty. He did not disappoint yesterday, while discussing the economy with his favorite reporter, CNBC's Becky Quick:

"Well, it's (the economy) been pretty flat. I get figures on 70-odd businesses, a lot of them daily. Everything that I see about the economy is that we've had no bounce. In the (Berkshire Hathaway) annual report, I said the economy would be in a shambles this year and probably well beyond. I'm afraid that's true."

"I looked. I wasn't seeing anything. I had a cataract operation on my left eye about a month ago and I thought maybe now I'll be able to see green shoots. We're not seeing them. Whether it's retailing, manufacturing, wherever. We have a big utility operation. Industrial demand is down like we've never seen it for a simple thing like electricity. So it hasn't happened yet."

Transcript from CNBC

Comments

[DailyBail]

This is very telling from Buffett.

Industrial demand is down like we've never seen it for a simple thing like electricity.

[Hemang Bavishi]

With an estimated fortune of $62 billion, Warren Buffett is the richest man in the entire world. In 1962, when he began buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway, a share cost $7.50. Today, Warren Buffett, 78, is Berkshire's chairman and CEO, and one share of the company's class A stock worth close to $119,000. He credits his astonishing success to several key strategies, which he has shared with writer Alice Schroeder. She spend hundreds of hours interviewing the Sage of Omaha for the new authorized biography The Snowball.