KEY POINTS:
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who foresaw the credit crisis, described the turmoil in the financial markets as an "economic Pearl Harbour" that required immediate action by politicians.
Piling pressure on Congress as it continued to debate the terms of a bailout for the financial system, Buffett said the panic of last week would "look like nirvana" if the legislation was not passed.
His comments came a day after he paid US$5 billion for a stake in Goldman Sachs, the banking giant, in what he described as a bet that politicians would indeed act to repair the battered credit markets.
"The market could not have taken another week like what was developing last week,"Buffett said.
"I understand where they're very mad about what's happened in the past, but this isn't the time to vent your spleen about that." And he predicted that the taxpayer would make a profit on the investments in toxic mortgage debt.
"If I had US$700 billion on the Government's terms to buy distressed assets, I would," he said.
"Unfortunatehly I'm tapped out."
- INDEPENDENT
