Betty Liu interviews Warren Buffett
This morning on Bloomberg television, Betty Liu interviewed Warren Buffett for much of the time between 8am and 9:30am. This was at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley outing, and the setting was casual. So was the interview.
The magic of the interview was that it was mostly Warren Buffett talking in a relaxed an open manner about his portfolio holdings, his views of the banking industry in light of this being JPM's reporting and conference time, and many other topics about Berkshire Hathaway. What was refreshing about the interview was the contrast to the CNBC style. The interview was focused on the person being interviewed, with intelligent questions asked and plenty of time for full answers.
The CNBC style seems to require that the interviewer be a personality. That means interrupting the person being interviewed from time to time, challenging the person being interviewed, and of course sharing a few yuck yucks as well. It's a sort of macho aggressive style of interview that often short circuits the answers and at times highlights the ignorance and attention seeking behavior of the interviewer.
That this interview was so relaxed and informative may well have something to do with the stature of Buffett. I think that it was more than that. The interviewer was on point with all questions and had a logical sequence to a live interview.
Of the many topics covered a few stood out. One was Buffett's unwavering support of Jamie Dimon. Another was when he was asked about the size of the big U.S. banks and what dangers they pose. Buffett responded that as a percent of GDP the U.S. big banks were smaller than those of many countries, such as Canada, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, and England. He recognized the need for the size to be truly global in order to compete with the banks of other countries. Buffett is a big fan of Lloyd Blankfein as a risk manager. His favorite banking firm by far is Wells Fargo. He likes Brian Moynihan and see BofA's deposit franchise as ultimately being a major strength as they work through their challenges. He said that Moynihan has been doing what he would do if in the same situation.
There was much more to this interview. It was really well done.
The magic of the interview was that it was mostly Warren Buffett talking in a relaxed an open manner about his portfolio holdings, his views of the banking industry in light of this being JPM's reporting and conference time, and many other topics about Berkshire Hathaway. What was refreshing about the interview was the contrast to the CNBC style. The interview was focused on the person being interviewed, with intelligent questions asked and plenty of time for full answers.
The CNBC style seems to require that the interviewer be a personality. That means interrupting the person being interviewed from time to time, challenging the person being interviewed, and of course sharing a few yuck yucks as well. It's a sort of macho aggressive style of interview that often short circuits the answers and at times highlights the ignorance and attention seeking behavior of the interviewer.
That this interview was so relaxed and informative may well have something to do with the stature of Buffett. I think that it was more than that. The interviewer was on point with all questions and had a logical sequence to a live interview.
Of the many topics covered a few stood out. One was Buffett's unwavering support of Jamie Dimon. Another was when he was asked about the size of the big U.S. banks and what dangers they pose. Buffett responded that as a percent of GDP the U.S. big banks were smaller than those of many countries, such as Canada, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, and England. He recognized the need for the size to be truly global in order to compete with the banks of other countries. Buffett is a big fan of Lloyd Blankfein as a risk manager. His favorite banking firm by far is Wells Fargo. He likes Brian Moynihan and see BofA's deposit franchise as ultimately being a major strength as they work through their challenges. He said that Moynihan has been doing what he would do if in the same situation.
There was much more to this interview. It was really well done.
posted by John Borden at 9:15 PM
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