On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett responded to a question on the causes of inflation by stating that “It’s fun sending money out to people if you want to stay in office” and when you just give away money, “something’s going to happen. You’re not going to have more goods and services produced immediately that can sop up that money.”
Co-host Joe Kernen asked, “What I was trying to figure out, Warren, is, in your long life, where you’ve seen a lot of different business cycles and you’ve seen hyperinflation and you’ve seen secular disinflation last forever, what do you think happened this time to get to 40-year highs? It’s obviously pandemic-related and supply chain-related, but do you ascribe anything to the Fed enabling too much fiscal spending, profligate spending by the federal — or by the government in general? Do you think that added to it, the increase in the money supply? Or where did it come from? Why did we — what engendered it this time around? And how bad is it, how long-lasting?”
Buffett answered, “It’s fun sending money out to people if you want to stay in office and you want their vote. And that’s always been a problem of our political system and around the world. And some companies just — or some countries have just printed it, where they have billions and billions of this currency or that. … I think that the United States has generally done a pretty good job of keeping inflation from getting out of control.”
He added, “It’s popular to send money out if you’re in politics. If you tell every one of your constituents that they just won the lottery and here’s $5,000 or $15,000, something’s going to happen. You’re not going to have more goods and services produced immediately that can sop up that money. And it’s fiscal policy in that case, and we are spending a lot more than — our government is spending a lot more than it’s taking in. And that’s a lot of fun if you want to stay in office, but it isn’t necessarily the best thing to do for your kids.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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