Warren Buffet is a man who got rich the hard way, by doing huge amounts of research and making investments that were looking relatively far ahead. He was, in a sense, the antithesis of the image many of us have of investors - buying and selling all the time, taking risks and getting rich quick. Buffet has been descried as a decades trader, rather than a day trader. He buys stocks and keeps them for as long as he can¹ .

It was with some interest that I stumbled across an article Buffet wrote in 2003 about the state of the economy in the U.S., and the rising trade deficit in particular. Buffet brings a much-needed long-term perspective, and a straightforward writing style:

In effect, our country has been behaving like an extraordinarily rich family that possesses an immense farm. In order to consume 4 percent more than we produce — that’s the trade deficit — we have, day by day, been both selling pieces of the farm and increasing the mortgage on what we still own.

1. How Buffet Does it by James Pardoe, McGraw Hill, 2005

Tags: Business, Long Term Thinking