FILE – In this file photo from May 5, 2019, Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, speaks during a game of bridge following Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting of shareholders in Omaha, Neb. Buffett said on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, the economic impact of the pandemic remains difficult to predict, but most large companies have done well as long as they weren’t tied to travel. (AP Photo / Nati Harnik, file)
Nati Harnik
JOSH FUNK The Associated Press
OMAHA – Billionaire Warren Buffett says the one constant throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been that it has been difficult to predict how this would affect the economy, but it has clearly devastated many small businesses and individuals as the Most of the big companies have done well.
“The economic impact has been this extremely uneven thing where I don’t know how many but several hundred thousand or millions of small businesses have been terribly affected, but most of the big, big businesses have done really well, unless they’re in cruise lines or, you know, hotels or something, â€Buffett said in an interview that aired on CNBC Tuesday night.
Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Vice President Charlie Munger touched on a variety of topics during the interview. Munger said China was on the right approach to the pandemic by essentially shutting down the country for six weeks.
“It turned out to be exactly the right thing to do,†Munger said. “And they didn’t allow any contact. You picked up your groceries in a box in the apartment and that’s all the contact you had with anyone for six weeks. And, when it was all over, they kind of went back to work. It happened, they did it exactly right.
Munger also praised the financial regulations put in place by Chinese regulators. For example, he said China was right to crack down on Ant Group, which is affiliated with billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba group, when it forced the giant online payments company to become a financial holding company that will be further regulated. like a bank.
