‘MISPRICED BUSINESSES’

Warren Buffett Thinks the Markets Are a ‘Gambling Parlor’

“Wall Street makes money, one way or another, catching the crumbs that fall off the table of capitalism,” Buffett said at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting.

Warren Buffett’s attitude towards the markets has taken a turn since he complained in February that he struggled to find anything worth buying. On Saturday at the annual shareholder meeting for his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Buffett, the company’s chairman and CEO, said that markets have been a “gambling parlor” in recent years, saying the financial industry has promoted riskier behavior. Buffett and other investors have found the bright side of this risky behavior and the resulting instability in the market, as they seek out undervalued businesses to throw their money at. “We depend on mispriced businesses through a mechanism where we’re not responsible for the mispricing,” Buffet said.

At the event, Buffett addressed thousands of shareholders as he and top executives from Berkshire took the stage. “Wall Street makes money, one way or another, catching the crumbs that fall off the table of capitalism,” Buffett said. “They don’t make money unless people do things, and they get a piece of them. They make a lot more money when people are gambling than when they are investing.”