巴菲特：中国有前途，但美国现在是老大

    就在美国国会为提高政府债务上限并避免违约风险而挣扎的时候，亿万富翁、投资人沃伦•巴菲特也加入了批评债务上限政策的行列，他把后者称为“大规模杀伤性武器”。这项政策制定于20世纪30年代，本意是为政府在筹款方面提供更大的灵活性。

    巴菲特在华盛顿召开的《财富》最具影响力女性峰会（Most Powerful Women Summit）上说：“它就象一颗原子弹，你可能会提起它，但绝不希望真正用到它。”

    并不是只有巴菲特一个人持有这种观点。美联储（U.S. Federal Reserve）主席本•伯南克等人也已表示，债务上限毫无意义，本来就不该存在。近年来，政客们（或者说共和党人）养成了一个坏毛病，那就是把债务上限定义为就政府超支展开辩论。而实际上，这项法律和政府未来的开支毫无瓜葛。债务上限的作用只是让财政部能够灵活地为国会已经批准的支出项目筹款。

    尽管人们都很担心，尽管国会议员们吵作一团，巴菲特却认为，光是美国将违约这个念头就“愚蠢透顶”，因为“这个想法非常愚蠢”。

    这位来自奥马哈的先知用极富个人色彩的方式表达了对美国经济的乐观看法——复苏并未停止，现在仍然是投资的好时候。

    他说：“美国正在恢复元气。没有人能阻止美国前进。我们可以排除一切困难。这个国家运转正常。”

    巴菲特回忆说，他在1942年4月买了第一只股票，当时美国刚刚因为珍珠港事件而加入二战。那时道琼斯指数跌到了100点，但巴菲特说，这并没有妨碍他投资股市。从那以后，他一直在买入股票。

    他告诫投资者：“其他人都害怕时你要变得贪心起来……而我一直都很贪心。”

    巴菲特还谈到了其他一些问题，比如中国经济的崛起以及美国的职业女性。他说，中国这个世界第二大经济体将变得“非常重要，而且也应该如此”，但美国“在今后非常、非常长的一段时间里仍然将是超级大国”。

    谈到中美之间的紧张关系，他认为：“重要的是，总的来说这两个国家正在学习如何共存。”

    外界普遍认为巴菲特是20世纪最出色的投资人，但83岁的巴菲特把自己的成功归结于运气和时机。他的事业刚刚起步时，大多数美国女性还都是教师、护士、秘书或者家庭主妇。巴菲特说：“我很幸运，因为只有一半的美国人和我竞争。”他还说，一直以来他的一项重点工作就是吸引更多有才干的女性进入他的公司——伯克希尔-哈撒韦（Berkshire Hathaway）。

    “伯克希尔要证明，许多能干的女性都可以取得非常高的成就。”（财富中文网）

    译者：Charile   

    As Congress scrambles to lift the nation's borrowing limit and avoid the risks of defaulting on its debt, billionaire investor Warren Buffett joined critics of the debt ceiling, calling the 1930s law originally intended to give the government more flexibility to borrow funds "a weapon of mass destruction."

    "It really is like a nuclear bomb," says Buffett on Wednesday at Fortune's annual Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C."It's something that maybe you talk about but never dream of using."

    Buffett's not alone. He joins the likes of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who argue the debt ceiling makes no sense and wishes it didn't exist. In recent years, politicos (ahem, Republicans) have gotten in the awful habit of framing the debt ceiling as a debate over excessive government spending, when in fact, the law has nothing to do with future spending. The debt ceiling simply gives the U.S. Treasury the flexibility to borrow for spending that Congress has already approved.

    Despite all the fear and political wrangling in Washington, Buffett says it's "absolutely folly" to even think the U.S. will default on its debt because "it is so stupid."

    In true Buffett fashion, the Oracle of Omaha had positive views of the U.S. economy. The recovery hasn't stalled, and it's still a good time to invest.

    "The country is coming back," he says. "You can't stop the United States. We get through everything. The country works."

    Buffett recalled buying his first stock in April 1942 shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the U.S. into World War II.

    The Dow sank to 100 at the time, but he says that didn't discourage him from investing in the stock market. He has been buying stocks since.

    A lesson for investors: "You want to be greedy when others are fearful ... I've got plenty of greed."

    Buffett touched on several other topics, from the economic rise of China to women in corporate America. On China, he says the world's second-biggest economy will be "enormously important and they should be," but the U.S. will be "the superpower of the world for a very, very, very long time.

    "What's important is that the two countries largely learn to live together," says Buffett about tensions between the U.S. and China.

    Widely considered the best investor of the 20th Century, Buffett, 83, attributes part of his success to luck and timing. He built his career at a time when most women were either teachers or nurses or secretaries or housewives. "I was lucky I was only competing with half the country," he says, adding that he's focused on attracting more talented women to his firm, Berkshire Hathaway.

    "Berkshire is going to prove that a lot of talented women could accomplish a whole lot."