Billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett hammered Wall Street stockbrokers and investment bankers on Saturday at his annual shareholders' meeting.
According to CNBC, the 91-year-old spoke at length and slammed the brokerages for encouraging clients to gamble on the market so they can profit from it.
The report states Buffett told the audience, "Wall Street makes money, one way or another, catching the crumbs that fall off the table of capitalism. 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.”
CNBC's Hugh Son added, "Buffett bemoaned that large American companies have 'became poker chips' for market speculation. He cited soaring use of call options, saying that brokers make more money from these bets than simple investing."
Buffett's longtime Berkshire Hathaway partner Charlie Munger also piled on Wall Street bankers, telling the crowd, "We have people who know nothing about stocks being advised by stockbrokers who know even less. It’s an incredible, crazy situation. I don’t think any wise country would want this outcome. Why would you want your country’s stock to trade on a casino?”
CNBC's Son added, "Warren Buffett has a long history of deriding investment bankers and their institutions –saying that they encourage mergers and spinoffs to reap fees, rather than improve companies."
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