Bitcoin is a ‘mirage basically’: Buffett

Warren Buffett is less worried about events in Ukraine and Russia, doesn’t foresee another economic calamity any time soon and summed up Bitcoin as just a method for transmitting money.

Buffett, who was interviewed by CNBC today, was asked about all the trouble in the news and the likelihood of another 2008 economic collapse occurring again.

“It will happen again someday but we are not close to it—remotely close to it—happening. It will happen again, but it won’t happen in the same way,” said Buffett.

While humans will “behave in crazy ways”, Buffett said people’s caution will still prevail.

“Once they get out of the emergency room, they are a little careful for a while.”

Buffett, who is reading the galleys of Tim Geithner’s new book, said events in 2008 were worse than he imagined.

“Even at the time I said it was an economic Pear Harbour. I wasn’t strong enough in stating what was happening.”

Asked about Bitcoin, Buffett laid in.

Stay away from it. It’s a mirage, basically. It’s a method of transmitting money—a very effective way of transmitting money. You can do it anonymously and all that. A cheque is a way of transmitting money, too. Are cheques worth a whole lot of money?

I hope bitcoin becomes a better way of doing it. But you can replicate it a bunch of different ways, and it will be. The idea that it has some huge instrinsic value is just a joke in my view. There’s dollars on both ends.