On the bad side, he thinks $700 billion may not be enough. On the good side, he has an interesting alternative idea for funding the buyouts of toxic assets.
-- Buffett suggested that a partnership between Treasury and private investors to buy the assets. "One easy way to do part of the program is to say to anybody - hedge fund operators, Wall Street firms, or anybody else - that the Treasury will lend you 80% of the purchase cost of a bunch of distressed assets," he said, explaining the concept of his proposal. The investors benefit from borrowing at lower rates, but Treasury gets first claims any returns from the sale of those assets before investors would get a penny. "Now you have someone with 20% skin in the game," he explained. "Believe me I won't be overpaying if I'm buying with that kind of leverage. And you have someone [the investors] to manage the assets to the extent they need to be managed." -- http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/02/news/newsmakers/buffett.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008100212 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:271946 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
