Buffett not worried sequester will hurt recovery

Alex Crippen, Executive Producer , CNBC ? ? ? 18 hrs.

Warren Buffett still sees "good value" in stocks, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average approaches an all-time high.

On CNBC's Squawk Box, Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway is still buying stocks, even though prices have increased.

"Anything I bought at $80 I don't like as well at $100. But if you're asking me if stocks are cheaper than other forms of investment, in my view the answer is yes. We're buying stocks now. But not because we expect them to go up. We're buying them because we think we're getting good value for them."

Buffett isn't too worried that the automatic government spending cuts known as the sequester will slow down the U.S. economy too much.

"We're continuing to see a slow recovery," he said. "It hasn't taken off, but it hasn't stopped either."

Buffett said that while the sequester will reduce the government's stimulus of the economy by cutting back on the deficit the remaining spending is still providing the economy a lot of "juice."

"It's not galloping at all, but we are making progress bit by bit. Everybody would love to see it faster. But it's not going into reverse and I do not think the sequester will cause it to go into reverse."

Buffett said the sequester could go on "for quite a while." He thinks, however, that once the American people see the results of its "meat ax" approach, there will be an opportunity to make more considered spending cuts.

Buffett remains confident, however, that Washington's red ink will be reduced. "We're going to bring down spending. We're going to bring up revenues. We may get there in fits and starts. And everybody may scream each time we do it. But the deficit is going to come down. It needs to come down."

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Buffett has "enormous respect" for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, but thinks it will be interesting to see what happens when the Fed begins to unwind its efforts to keep interest rates very low. He said that rates near zero have pushed stocks higher than they would have gone otherwise and the global markets are on a "hair trigger," looking for any sign the central bank may start raising rates.

"I think the Fed will try to give little signals here and all of that. But in the end, there are an awful lot of people who want to get out of a lot of assets if they think the Fed is going to tighten a lot."

The results of higher rates, he said, "will be very noticeable" in the markets.

Will the Fed's action affect Berkshire's decisions? No, said Buffett, pointing out that in all the years he's worked with partner Charlie Munger, they've never had a conversation about macroeconomics when deciding whether or not to buy a company.

"In terms of whether to buy Oriental Trading today or pass, whether to buy Heinz today or see, we do not get into macroeconomic discussions at all. Everybody thinks we do."

For him, price is the main consideration because it "takes care of the future."

Buffett joked that while he got a business he likes, and a partner he likes (3G Capital), in the $23 billion acquisition of H.J. Heinz, he "barely liked" the price and wouldn't have made the deal if 3G founder Jorge Paulo Lemann wasn't involved. "We get terrific management," he said, with 3G running Heinz. It's a long-term deal, said Buffett. "We hope to own Heinz 100 years from now."

Buffett said unusual options activity the day before the Heinz deal was announced was "clearly insider trading" and he's confident the SEC will "nail that guy." He noted that while Berkshire works very hard to keep upcoming deals secret, there were several investment banks and others involved in the negotiations, making a leak more likely.

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/buffett-not-overly-worried-sequester-will-drag-economy-down-1C8670338

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