Buffet and Munger on real estate, the economy and the auto industry

Tough talking from Berkshire Hathaway (when you're that successful you can afford to have a bad website). Link from Philip Greenspun.

On the US trade defecit:

It seems to me that a $618 billion trade deficit, rich as we are, strong as this country is, well, something will have to happen that will change that. Most economists will still say some kind of soft landing is possible. I don't know what a soft landing is exactly, in how the numbers come down softly from levels like these....

On the American auto industry:

Some people seem to think there's no trouble just because it hasn't happened yet. If you jump out the window at the 42nd floor and you're still doing fine as you pass the 27th floor, that doesn't mean you don't have a serious problem. I would want to address the problem right now.

On the real estate bubble:

Buffett to Munger: "What do you think the end will be?"
Munger: "Bad."

On the NYSE's merger with (electronic exchange) Archipelago:

I think we have lost our way when people like the [board of] governors and the CEO of the NYSE fail to realize they have a duty to the rest of us to act as exemplars. You do not want your first-grade school teacher to be fornicating on the floor or drinking alcohol in the closet and, similarly, you do not want your stock exchange to be setting the wrong moral example.

With investment guru's talking like this, it might be time to buy gold bullion!