Warren Buffett in Omaha 3/31/26

27:33when the epidemic broke out, I think he acted in March of 2020. And I think if he'd waited two or three weeks, it would have been a disaster. Once the dominoes start toppling, they just start toppling. And that line is shorter than anybody thinks, and it topples faster. And I think he did exactly the right thing. And he did it even stronger than Volcker did. I mean, he and Volcker are my heroes at the Fed. Did they keep rates low for too long? I mean, I think that's as they didn't worry about inflation as they said it was going to be transitory. Because I think even Powell himself said that he might wish he'd turned it sooner.

28:27Well, I wish they had a zero inflation target. But, I mean, once you start saying you're going to tolerate 2%, that compounds pretty dramatically over time. And you're saying to people if you're getting less than 2 % on your money, you're going backwards. And actually, if you pay tax, you may pay tax on the 2%. I don't like that particular goal. So inflation is maybe what you'd be more concerned about. I mean, that's what Greenspan, Alan Greenspan always said. Yeah, I would be, I wouldn't care about inflation. I would compare what I really would care about is the stability of the banks. I mean, the banking system is, in some senses, very strong, in other senses, very fragile.

29:25I mean, J.P. Morgan, in the last couple of annual reports, reported doing 10 trillion of business per day. Now that's an unsecured policy. Now they know what they're doing, believe me. I mean, there's nobody smarter than J.P. But I didn't want during the 2008 period, I didn't want anything unsecured out there for a day. I mean, who knew? Nobody was any good. You know, I mean, the world is very interconnected, and everybody panics. I mean, it, you know, they may say they don't, but you can call the biggest investment banking firms, and they say, well, they don't answer the phone even if things get bad enough.

30:28And if they do answer the phone, you know, they say 10 bid, 20 offered subject. Yeah, Joe will talk about that day that you mentioned where the Dow was down 21%. I think he was, at that point, he said it himself. He was hiding under his desk for the calls that were coming in. Yeah. Because when liquidity disappears, it disappears. And that was some day. And it just kept coming. And most of the specialist firms, which then counted for more in terms of the stability of the markets, They were broke. I mean, as I remember, they went around to their banks and said, just don't blow the loans. But they were supposed to keep making markets, but people just kept hitting the bid.

31:19And you can widen the spread out. You've got circuit breakers now, all kinds of things. But when people are scared, they're scared. and people, if you yell fire in a crowded theater, everybody around is still, it still pays to beat people to the door. I'd get trampled, so I would stand back there and say everybody to stay calm, but that's because I can't run fast. On the other hand, when people come back into the theater, they come in one at a time. They know they don't have to get into it, but when people panic, they panic. But is it the banking system we should be concerned about right now, or is it the shadow banking system, the private credit at this point?

32:10It's all parts of the banking system because they all affect each other. And the troubles from one can spread over to another. And, well, you saw what happened, I mean, in 2008. But at risk of potentially, I don't want people to say that you are commenting on what's happening in the private credit situation right now. What do you think of the private credit situation right now? Are there enough concerning issues there that you worry that it could cause a contagion? I don't think I know. OK. I do not think I know what. But therefore, I want to be prepared for anything. And therefore we will always have cash around.

32:55And we'll have treasury bills. We won't have money market funds. We didn't have them in 2008. We won't have commercial paper in 2008. There's just one thing that's legal tender. And if you own treasury bills, and we have known, we don't own treasury bonds way out. But every Monday the treasury has to sell bills. And as long as they've got to sell X billions worth of bills, I mean, they can print some money to do it, and they'll do it. But just to put a fine point on it, you don't think you know what's happening out there. You've had this huge cash ward north of$350 billion. It's just there waiting for any time.

33:41It's not that you necessarily think that there's something on the horizon. It's just the longer time goes. Oh, sure. I always want to have cash. And I never want to buy anything just because people think the market is going up. I mean, the idea that people think they know what the market is going to do is just crazy. I mean, the idea that they would shout out to the world, you know, something they really knew. that's like saying if they had gold found gold in their backyard they'd come on television and say here's where the gold is in my backyard you know I mean they're selling something they want other people to follow you mean well they know that there's a certain I mean there's people in the United States and other parts of the world but you've seen how much they like to gamble and basically you have this incredible cathedral called the American Economic System.

34:50Nobody's seen anything like it. It's the cathedral of all cathedrals, but attached to it is a casino and people can walk back and forth between the two. And believe me, people like to gamble. I mean, they gamble with the odds against them. in the market, they can actually gamble if they, well, they really aren't gambling if they do it. But I mean, if they just buy a stock and sit for 50 years, if they got a group of them, they're going to do fine. I mean, the American capitalism system works. And betting against the House does not work. I mean, it's just, it's so simple. But people do like to gamble.

35:35I mean, I'm my honeymoon. When you say gambling, are you talking? On my honeymoon in 1952, we went through Las Vegas. Susie and I, we just got in my Aunt Alice's car and we drove and we went through Las Vegas at the time. I watched all these people who were dressed well and they'd flown non-jets. They'd flown for many hours, spent much money and everything else to go and pull handles or do something that was mathematically dumb. And I thought, this is the land of opportunity. I told her we were going to get rich. How can you have people who have perfectly decent IQs rushing to do dumb things, which they do, and industries build on it, now it's become legalized, and the more they open it up, the more people like to do it.

36:29They like to do it in the stock market, And actually, in the stock market, at least they got a favorable expectancy if they just sit tight. But they don't sit tight, of course, if they're gamblers. So you're not a fan of prediction markets, of legalized sports gambling, even of day trading? Is that basically what you're saying? Well, I don't think you can stop it once you open it up. And once the states found out that they could pay about 60 cents on the dollar or something like that, whatever they may have, different systems for different states. There was one state that was legal in when I was a kid.

37:06And we've been around for hundreds of years. But then once people saw how that was working, other places took it up. And, of course, rich people love it because they don't have to pay. I mean, to the extent that the states raise money from people who, that what the dollar really means something to them actually relieves the taxes on me or other rich people. I mean, it's not direct, but it's the net effect. So I don't like things that make a sucker out of people. I don't like them. I particularly don't like them when the government sponsors them. I don't think the government should play its... I don't think the function of the government is to play its people for suckers.

37:54Yeah. My dad has always said the lottery is a tax on the stupid gambling. It's a tax. It's a tax on stupidity. But it's it's. But I'm not mad as a people that are stupid. No, I really am not. I mean, you can't help it. To some extent, if you're human beings, I mean, you're geared that way when somehow, you know, it's developed within the humans. I don't like it when the government that they elect decides they're going to profit off that sort of activity. And I particularly, I just, I think it's kind of cynical. I don't think you should have a cynical government. I mean, it's... Warren, let me shift gears and ask a little bit about what you think that is happening, about what's happening in the Middle East right now.

38:51What's happening? What's happening in the Middle East? Oh. There's a lot of ways we could go with this, but why don't we start with just what it means for crude oil and energy in particular. Berkshire owns a utility company. What do these higher prices mean? Well, it means the two oil positions we have, Chevron and Occidental, go up a lot. But that doesn't mean I can go around predicting what will happen next. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow over there. You, for a long time, were involved with the nuclear initiative. I think still are funding that. And I know your very first priority in philanthropy was the nuclear problem.

39:35I think it's the problem. I think it's, well, I'll put it this way. When I went to school, grammar school, they told me the sun was going to burn out in four and a half billion years. I took that pretty philosophically. I mean, I could handle that. And now you've got nine countries, including, you know, a guy in North Korea. I mean, and there will be something happen. And we worried enormously about it when there were two. And we had perfectly, we had really pretty sane leaders in Kennedy and Khrushchev. You know, I mean, you were not dealing with unstable people or anything like that.

40:24And, you know, the ships turned around. But people were hiding under their desks with two. I mean, just think how you feel with North Korea having it and Iran wanting to get it. I mean, it is, and I don't have an answer for that. I mean we did the right thing in 1938 or 1939. Go look at, it's all over the internet, the most important letter ever written.

40:58And Leo Zalord could not get the message to, he was a famous nuclear physicist, a terrific one, very funny too. and he couldn't get the message to Roosevelt but he knew if Einstein signed the letter that it would get there and he finally got Einstein to sign the letter and that letter was a month before the Germans started rolling into Poland and I don't think Roosevelt understood you 235 any better than I do but he knew if Einstein signed it he better do something. And the funny thing is, of course, he was doing it because he was worried about the Germans getting it, and it was actually used on the Japanese.

41:47But it... We... We haven't learned to live with it. Now, we've been... We've gone 80 years since then. We've had a lot of close calls. I mean, we've had training tapes put in there that almost got the president to do something. They've had them. I mean, there is no way that the planet has an expectancy of 500 years now when it was four and a half billion when I was a kid. And we had to do it. I'm not faulting anybody. My dad was in Congress. He would have voted for it. I mean, everybody rejoiced on PGA Day. I mean, it's it. But there was no way we could undo it. Well, I think the question becomes today.

42:44Nikki Haley was just on Squawk Box right before you. And she was saying she thinks the president should go in and find the enriched uranium in Iran right now. And that's a controversial position. It's a controversial. But I would be, for one way or another, if I were the president of the United States, I don't want to be president of the United States.

43:09I one time asked one president, I said, you know, if the Soviets had launched, so they already were in the air, and our policy was mutually assured destruction, Would you have told Strategic Air Command, unleash ours, knowing that it wasn't going to, I mean, it was going to just kill millions and millions and millions more people and add to a super polluted atmosphere that who knows what was going to happen. I mean, and now we have. What was the answer? the answer well

44:00this president said he said I thought about that every day because some major shows up at midnight and says we have incontrovertial this is not geese above the north coal this is not a training tape that got put in by mistake we know they're in the air and you've got 10 minutes to make a decision, Mr. President. What do I tell SAC to do? Do we unleash ours? And I used to be on the SAC advisory board. Believe it or not. But that was for political purposes as I put people on naturally because they were always looking for more money and they just figured it. And I don't blame them. But what did the president say?

44:47What was his answer? The president said, I thought about it every day during the time I was in office. he was the next president. But did not give an answer on what he actually did. No, he said, I think the answer is yes. I would tell him to do it. That is the policy of the United States of America. Yeah. So if you were the president today, or if you were advising the president today, what would you say about going after the enriched uranium in Iran? I would say that one way or another, in the next hundred years, maybe it's 200 years, who knows, but one way or another something will happen to cause it to be used and we can't take what's out there now.

45:37And if you thought it was dangerous with the Soviets and us with Khrushchev, who was a perfectly rational guy probably. Kennedy, just wait till we're dealing with the guy in North Korea that criticizes haircut or something. Or I would say the most dangerous thing is actually somebody that's got their hand on the switch who is dying themselves or is facing enormous embarrassment. If you're cornered. Yeah, if you're cornered. Yeah. So that still rises to the level of one of the most important. And it is. Yeah. It's just that I don't know the answer for it. But I do know that it'll be more difficult if Iran has the bomb than they don't.

46:26Yeah. Warren, I'm going to shift topics again. You have given away almost 60 billion dollars since 2006 when you first started giving money away. The bulk of that has gone to the Bill Gates Foundation. What have you thought about all the emails in the Epstein files related to Bill Gates? Well, I won't say what I thought about them particularly related to Bill Gates, but I would say it's astounded me how human people are. I mean, here you had a guy that was a convicted guy, a sensational con man, And the percentage of people that he knocked off, I mean, whether it was, he found their weakness. It might be sex, it might be power, it might be whatever it might be.

47:22And I don't see how anybody could have pulled that off. And then, and of course, all these figures think that it's going, when he dies, that ha, you know, they've basically lied about it before. But, I mean, you know... Lied about their associations with Epstein, you mean? Well, I mean, you know, they've rationalized it one way or another. But, and now it's all getting opened up. And, of course, I'm just, I'm so happy the guy didn't, that he didn't stop at all, however. I mean, or that I didn't live in New York. If I lived in New York, at some party, I would have been at some damn thing. And more people always are asking to take a picture.

48:13And I usually do. I'm so used to doing it with students. I always do these gag pictures where I'm picking some guy's pocket or proposing to some woman or some damn thing. And, you know, thank heavens. I never came near the guy. And I had read the article in Vanity Fair in 2003. The one that laid out what a mysterious and strange figure he was. It went as far as somebody who's worried about libel suits goes. Well, it made him sound like a fraud, for sure. I've read that article recently at your suggestion. And the interesting thing is, you know, he got a startup at Bear Stearns. and they knew him.

49:06They knew he lied to them on all kinds of things.

49:12And H. Greenberg was a good friend of mine. Well, Jimmy Kane may have been actually running the firm by then. I'm not sure. But H. Greenberg always was looking for... He had a guy that... the son of a friend of mine, that he hired just to be his ferret. And his job was to look for anything that was old or large that traders might have stuck in their desk. I mean, he was worried about people. But somehow, Ace's daughter, I guess, was dated by Epstein or something. And that guy must have been the con man of all time. It's one thing to be a con man. It's another thing to be trafficking minors. Absolutely.

50:00Sexual prostitution. And being prosecuted. And even though he managed to jiggle his way through that thing with whoever the attorney general was then, one way or another, he did not really spend much time in his cell. But he had a way of conning everybody. I mean, who knows what he offered the guys to do that. He could con anybody. He found their weakness. Have you been concerned? First of all, have you learned things from the Epstein files? Sure. I can't read them myself because my eyesight is so bad, but I've got a friend that reads them avidly for me, And it is astounding to me that anybody could be that successful as a con person.

50:55But P.T. Barnum said it many years ago too. You know, it was one born every minute.

51:06And, you know, men are going to like sex.

51:13and some, some of them are going to like not paying taxes. And whatever it was, he figured out what their weakness was and then he had this ability to prey on them. But that doesn't excuse the people on the other end. Right. What are the consequences for what... The consequences are very likely to be, in my view, Same thing that happened back in 1969 when the Johnson administration left and the Ford Foundation hired a whole bunch of people that were let go from government. And it takes something where Congress feels that they're better off going after the foundations than not. And the foundations have got plenty of money.

52:14And foundations have plenty more power in Washington. It's kind of irritating. We can talk about that later. maybe, but in 69, I think Wilbur Mills was head of the Ways and Means Committee. I don't remember exactly how it came about, but that was the last, that was a big revision of what foundations could do. I think this is going to have the same effect. Is there anything that you've read or been read from the Epstein files that concerns you about the money that you donate to the Gates Foundation? Money you've given in the past? There was a lot I didn't know. Like what? Well, it's very clear.

52:59Well, I didn't know a lot of things. I mean, there were three trustees of the foundation, and I was one of the three. Now, we only met once a year. I did not ask probing questions. I mean, you know, if I had, if I thought I had to ask probing questions, I wouldn't have put the money in it in the first place. But But, and incidentally, the guy, the CEO of the foundation wasn't necessarily present during all these things, but he's not the real CEO. I mean, in the end, Bill ran the foundation. But I learned, I guess, when the divorce action happened, because I resigned a month later, less than a month later, I think.

53:50What did you learn then? I learned that I didn't know what was going on.

53:57Which didn't mean something terrible was going on, necessarily. But I certainly didn't know what was going on. And we didn't, and I didn't ask the questions either, though. I mean, in terms of being on the foundation board, it was, I made a decision on it in 2006.

54:20And I didn't think butting into somebody's marital problems or anything like that was particularly appropriate at the foundation meetings. But they went through and they talked about all these little things that didn't mean anything. And then they've hired a few people that are really bad news, you know. I never met any of those people. You're talking about Boris Nikolic? Yeah, I don't even know what to say. He was mentioned pretty prominently in the episode. I never heard of him. And, you know, I was around the... That guy so far in the proceedings, I mean, he looks like a terrible guy to employ.

55:05Now, I've employed terrible people, but we've gotten rid of him. Boris Nikolic eventually was gotten rid of at the foundation as well. Have you talked to Bill Gates about any of this? I haven't, no, I haven't talked to him at all since the whole thing was unveiled I don't want to be in a position where I know things at some point I could get called as a witness Are you going to continue to give money to the Gates Foundation? You have every June since 2006 Well, yeah, actually I agreed to do it every year but I've done it around June 30th most of the time And I'll wait and see what unfolds. The stock isn't going any place.

55:52It isn't like I'm giving it all away to something else or won't have it. But I'll wait and see what... I'm learning things I didn't know about something for all these years.

56:11And I didn't know how the marital thing would play out. I mean, I just didn't know about it. You can guess sometimes that people aren't getting along at a given time, but that's true in every marriage. There are times when they get irritated with their spouse or something like that.

56:35So in any event, I'll just wait and see. and there's three and a half million or one of it is I mean it is astounding. And the Epstein files The Epstein files and there's a lot of redacted stuff and obviously anybody that was involved in Epstein I mean they've been miserable probably from the moment they learned that things are going to get released and the And they can't bury it now. I mean, it's gone too far. Are there situations? I guess you're caught in a position where if you don't... The money's all going to get given away. Right. If you don't give the money to the Gates Foundation, are you in violation of the pledge that you made?

57:26Or if you do give the money, are you condoning the behavior that has taken place? That you may or may not, that you may not have... We haven't learned everything potentially yet about. That's what I want to learn. I don't have to make that decision today. I haven't made it today. But I do keep reading things. I mean, I've heard somebody reads them for me, actually.

57:53I was always astounded somewhat by the Epstein thing, what it was taking place. But what this reveals about humans and their degree, whether it's money or whether it's sex or whatever. I mean, this guy found people's weaknesses, but they did do things. I don't think, if you ask me my personal opinion, I don't think Bill had anything to do with girls or the island or anything like that. But I am learning things about all kinds of stuff when I read this and it is ruining one person after another. I mean, it's just astounding to me how bad... People always do things. I mean, there's consensual sex and all kinds of things.

58:49But this guy, how many hours are there in the day? I mean, three and a half million or whatever. There's communications and all the thinking that goes into... And he found people's weaknesses. And boy, did he know how to use it. And he obviously used this guy more of somebody, and he used the woman, Goldman Sachs. I mean, just every place she looked. I've never seen any. And I'm sure that once you get rid of the redacting of a few things, you're going to learn more. So you're waiting to hear what else comes from the files, potentially what comes from congressional hearings? Yeah. I think they may change the law on foundations, too.

59:49I'm sorry, you think? I think there's a good chance. But Congress doesn't act that fast.

59:59But I just think that Congress reacts to whatever the public's mad about and nobody's mad about the Epstein thing. But you said that you think they could change the law and foundations as a result? I think there could be major foundation hearings. And the changes that would go after the foundations that would do what? Strip their tax status? Congress will want to look like they're doing something about it. And foundations have done a lot more lobbying in the past. I mean, there hasn't been any anti-foundation lobbying to speak of. And there's been foundations are there, and everybody goes to Washington.

1:00:40It's sounding to me how, you know, Washington has really become important. That's where the money is doled out. That's where the rules are doled out. Do you think the foundations in general have done good work? Do you think the Gates Foundation has done good work? I'm sure they've done good work. I don't think they'd be around if they hadn't. Some good work. The question is whether the rules get changed in terms of what they can do or their taxation gets... I mean, look at Harvard. I mean, you know, it, once public opinion changes, Congress changes. You know, it's just the way it works. Are you sorry you've given the money to the Gates Foundation?

1:01:36No, no. So you're happy that it's gone? I mean, it's...

1:01:44But I wish that certain things hadn't happened, obviously. But I don't... But it isn't like they're stealing money for themselves or anything like that. I mean, Bill pours his efforts into it. Melinda Porter efforts into it. The person, the guy that runs it, does... He's a guy I'd hire myself, you know. I mean, it... Mark Sussman. Yeah. Yeah. And I think he's actually the best CEO they've had, you know. And I don't envy his job. But I also think that I'll wait and see. They've got$96 billion that they're sitting on now. At the foundation. At the foundation. Nobody's got anything like that. Although Bill has also said that he plans to spend that money down pretty rapidly over the next 20 years.

1:02:42He's got plenty of his own money to add to it. I don't know what will happen. There's been, you know, you and Bill and Melinda also created the Giving Pledge, where you got billionaires around the world to sign up and agree that they would give away at least half of their wealth, either while they were living or upon their death. And you've got hundreds of people to sign up to that. 200 and some. Yeah, 250-some people to sign up to that. It's the sound of me that we've gotten that many. What Bill has done, and what I give him credit for, he's taken it abroad. And you're changing the behavior of societies to some small degree.

1:03:31The United States is, now they've got it partly by laws, a favorite too and everything else. But the United States is an experiment not only in a lot of other ways but also actually in terms of private philanthropy. And Bill has made small little cracks in that around the world, which I think defies centuries and centuries of behavior. So the energy he brings to anything he's involved in is incredible. I mean, I'm too lazy. I'm not going to go around the world. I just, you know, I feel we launched something good, and I feel that there is no one that's a member of the giving pledge that is giving less than they would have given otherwise.

1:04:30Now, we never told them what to give it to. We never told them when they should give it. We didn't make an illegal pledge. I mean, but we really got response on that. There has been there have been some articles written recently about the backlash in certain sectors, technology billionaires in particular. Peter Thiel, Mark Andreessen, who have said that they don't like the giving pledge and they think it's woke. if they don't like it they don't have the volume they can retire from it they didn't make a legal pledge anyway and there may be any one of a lot of reasons why rich people don't like other rich people or who knows what happens but I would say this that well I just would bet a lot of money that nobody is giving less because of it than they would have otherwise given and a fair number of people, not huge numbers, but not insignificant numbers either, are giving it earlier or giving more.

1:05:35The biggest objection that people would raise with me, and it usually was by the mother, was that they just didn't want to become targets of articles about how rich they were. And you can't blame them for that. I mean, they're worried about, they can be worried about anything. But a lot of people joined. One guy even joined because he said, all I want is to have lunch with Becky Quick. I said, I think he didn't follow through, apparently. No, I never heard from him. But, I mean, if you get a lot of billionaires, you get a lot of peculiar people. But not that that's peculiar. I know I should present you with that.

1:06:24But it was amazing to me the reception we got. And we just started dialing. And we hit the obvious tick. I mean, obviously it's fallen off the rate of additions. and obviously you know we made we genuinely said we're not judging the people we're not going to judge whether they made their money liquor we weren't what counts is what they're doing with it, you know, I mean that's all we're talking about is for God's sakes you know, give away half of it and that's so different from for a family that's got a family farm for a hundred years and they planned on giving it to their kids and all kinds of things, than it is for some guy like me that just made it in stocks.

1:07:19It would be a big emotional decision if I were like a bunch of, well, got certain very rich farmers that own lots of acreage and they've been building it their whole life for their turnover to their kids and they buy the farm next to them and everything. So I think I feel good about the giving pledge. You said you haven't talked to Bill about any of the issues that have come out from the Epstein files. Are you still good friends with him? We've had great times together. But he's treated me better than I think he's probably treated anybody else. I mean, he's arranged trips that arranged for the kinds of foods I liked or the Wall Street Journal being in China or whatever.

1:08:12I mean, he's been terribly thoughtful with me throughout this. But I think until it gets cleared up, I just don't think it makes sense to do a lot of talking. For one thing, I don't want to be under... My memory's no good anymore. I don't want to be under oath in terms of trying to remember everything. Over 30 years or 20 years the foundation's done or anything like that. I didn't have anything to do with it except I put the money in. And you may say, you can say, well, you're derelict in not doing it, but I'm giving money to my children's foundations. I've never looked at what they give either.

1:08:57I mean, I just, I trust people. and I think I've trusted very good people but I think I can see where if somebody gets a guy like Epstein involved in their life they don't want to talk about it

1:09:19it's been very useful to me that Bill never said come on along I want you to meet Epstein so he He could have done things that would have been screwed up my life, but I'd have gone along with him. If he'd said to me after the annual meeting or sometime, and he said, you know, I'm going to New York, why don't you fly along? There's this interesting guy or something. I probably would have gone, you know. And so I've got him to thank for not doing that. But you can't get away from what happened either. And you can't get away from the fact that foundations are a peculiar, there's something that our country has really endorsed.

1:10:09I mean, charitable deductions and donor advised funds and all of that sort of thing. And that's worth looking at probably more often than every 30 or 40 years. The foundation is just, what they do is they lobby just basically leave us alone. We have 87 seconds left in the show. Any other thought that you'd like to throw in? Because I don't think we've covered enough ground. Well, I think the interesting thing is you've got America, which is the wonder of the world. And at the same time, you've got a great number of people that they're just as much human beings as you or I. And, you know, they may not have the same IQ or anything like that, but I think the differentials are too great, but I also think it's worked.

1:11:12so how do you actually solve all that through an entity which is basically broken down into two sides that sort of automatically vote against each other no matter what the issue is I mean you mean Democrats and Republicans yeah Democrats and Republicans I mean we have 20 seconds it's become more partisan than ever. And we're more prosperous than ever. And anybody ever dreamt. So you have to say capitalism's work, but it still needs, you know, I guess we're finished. We're finished. Three seconds. Are you a Democrat or a Republican? I've been both. And I was actually on the ballot as a Republican in 1960.

1:12:06But But my dad was very Republican. I went to the Democratic side, and now I'm an independent. Okay. We're going to leave it on that. And that's enough of a tease until the next time we talk with you. But Warren, thank you very much for your time. It's a lot of fun.

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1:13:10soccer and FIFA World Cup 2026. Bank of America and a member FDIC. This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information-packed daily market preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash market update podcast, or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts.

1:13:47Thank you for listening to this special SquawkPod reports from Omaha with Warren Buffett. Squawk Box is hosted by Joe Kernan, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Squawk Pod is produced by me, Zach Valisi, Cameron Costa, and Katie Kramer. John Lazration is our editor. Have a great day.

1:14:27Plus, guided learning paths with content designed to fit your unique interests. And no sifting to find exactly what you need, so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more at schwapp.com slash trading.