Buffett Really 'Doesn't Care' if Fed Is Going to Hike Rates

Buffett Really 'Doesn't Care' if Fed Is Going to Hike Rates

Thursday, 02 Oct 2014 10:18 PM

By Dan Weil

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Buffett-market-stocks-rates/2014/10/02/id/598209/

Stocks dropped sharply Wednesday, with the S&P 500 down 1.3 percent, and Warren Buffett took advantage of the move to buy shares.

While he wouldn't tell CNBC which stocks he purchased, Buffett did cite them as "names you'd recognize."

Obviously the aim of the stock game is to buy low and sell high, and that's what Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway tries to do. "The more [the market] goes down, the more I like to buy."

Trying to time the market precisely is often a "fool's game," he asserts.

Owning shares of U.S. companies in a variety of industries has placed investors in very good stead over the past 20 years, Buffett said.

"Particularly if you buy them over time. You can't lose."

He notes that his investment decisions aren't dictated by the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy.

"I really don't care about whether the Fed is going to raise interest rates," Buffett proclaims.

"Interest rates to valuations are like gravity is to physical objects, basically," he explains. "If interest rates are 10 percent, everything is worth less than if interest rates are worth 1 percent. Everything is a function of interest rates. Everything. Any financial asset."

With rates being held near zero for so long, "that has caused all other asset classes to go up in value. Whether you are talking about holding oil, you name it, anything. That will always be true."

Instead, Buffett simply buys businesses he thinks will perform for the next 50 years, such as Thursday's deal to purchase the country's largest privately held car dealership company, Van Tuyl Group.

Uncertainty now reigns in the stock market.

"There may be a bit of a wait-and-see attitude for U.S. markets over the next couple of days," Veronika Pechlaner, a fund manager at Ashburton Ltd., tells Bloomberg.

"The geopolitical background hasn't been great for U.S. stocks. In the case of small caps, they re-rated and traded at much higher valuations, so investors are asking themselves if it will really get better than this when interest rates start going up."

S&P

McGraw Hill Financial Inc. is a subsidiary of Standard & Poor's.

Note: Douglas L. Peterson is the president & CEO & director for the McGraw Hill Financial Inc., and was the president of the Standard & Poor's.

Harold W. McGraw III is the chairman for the McGraw Hill Financial Inc., and a trustee at the Carnegie Hall.

Andrew Carnegie was the founder of the Carnegie Hall, the founder of Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

Kurt L. Schmoke is a trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and a director at the McGraw Hill Financial Inc.

Pedro Aspe was a trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and a director at the McGraw Hill Financial Inc.

David A. Hamburg is the president emeritus for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, an adviser for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and Margaret A. Hamburg’s father.

Margaret A. Hamburg is David A. Hamburg’s daughter, the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).

Ronald L. Olson is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and a director at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Warren E. Buffett is the chairman & CEO for Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and an adviser for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).

Igor S. Ivanov is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and a director at the United Nations Foundation, and was a board member for the International Crisis Group.

Ted Turner is the chairman for the United Nations Foundation, and a co-chairman for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).  

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), was a board member for the International Crisis Group, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982

(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)

http://www.illuminati-news.com/110106a.htm 

Donald Kennedy was a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a board member for the International Crisis Group, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Mark B. McClellan was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Lois Dickson Fitt was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the McGraw Hill Financial Inc., and is Susan E. Rice.

McGraw Hill Financial Inc. is a subsidiary of Standard & Poor's.

Susan E. Rice was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is Lois Dickson Fitt’s daughter, and the White House national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration.