Warren Buffet spoke during an event at Georgetown University on Thursday. The lecture also featured Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.Reuters
Warren Buffett expressed his openness to recommending the reappointment of Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman. The revelation from the billionaire investor came on Thursday, a day after the central bank made the unexpected decision to hold off on decreasing monetary stimulus, Reuters reports.
"Since the panic of five years ago, he's done a terrific job," Buffett said during a joint CNBC television interview with Brian Moynihan, chief executive of Bank of America Corp.
He was then asked if he would reappoint Bernanke when his term ends, to which he replied, "That's what I would do."
Buffett also talked about the risks of the government's departure from its monthly bond-buying program during another event at Georgetown University on Thursday.
"We are in an experiment which hasn't really been tried before," he said. He added that "buying securities is usually easier than selling securities."
Owning more than 80 businesses, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. maintains over $130 billion of equity and fixed income investments. In August 2011, the company used its money to invest $5 billion in Bank of America as it faced legal and monetary issues primarily associated with what was Countrywide Financial Corp.
According to Moynihan, the bank has decreased in size and handled many of the regulatory problems that plagued it over the past few years.
"You have an economy which we see very constructive, growing at 1.5 to 2 percent," he said. "We don't see a lot of downside risk ... Until unemployment is down, [Bernanke] has to keep this economy going in the right direction."
Buffett added that many of his planned value investing strategies for Berkshire have had to be set aside as stock indexes hover close to or meet record numbers. This is mainly due to the fact that stocks "were very cheap five years ago, ridiculously cheap, and that has been corrected," Buffett said. "They're probably more or less fairly priced now ... We're having a hard time finding things to buy."
