Warren Buffett Gets the Call As Barack Obama Gathers His Economic Advisers Today - Warren Buffett Watch

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Jul.28

9:21 AM ET

Monday, 28 Jul 2008

Warren Buffett Gets the Call As Barack Obama Gathers His Economic Advisers Today

Posted By: Alex Crippen

Topics:Economy (U.S.) | Hillary Clinton | Presidential Politics (2008) | Barack Obama | Warren Buffett

Companies:Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Barack Obama
Jae C. Hong / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., waves as he arrives at the Victory Column in Berlin, Thursday, July 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Barack Obama calls on Warren Buffett, among others, as he turns his attention to the troubled U.S. economy now that he's returned from his international tour that featured a well-attended speech in Berlin.

In an interview with Tom Brokaw on NBC's Meet the Press over the weekend, Obama said that today he would be "pulling together" some of his "core economic advisers" to "examine the policies that we've already put forward--a middle class tax cut, a second round of stimulus, a effort to shore up the housing market in addition to the bill that was already passed through Congress, what we need to do in terms of energy and infrastructure."

Buffett is one of the names Obama includes on that list of core advisers, along with former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, and former Labor Secretary Bob Reich.

Bloomberg reports Buffett will be participating in the meeting by telephone. In an interview aboard his campaign jet returning from London, Obama tells Bloomberg, "I expect some further fine-tuning of short-term policies based on what's happened over the last several months."

Buffett has endorsed Obama's presidential bid, although he also supported Hillary Clinton while she was running for the Democratic nomination. That doesn't mean he'll necessarily agree with all of Obama's positions. In an interview with CNBC's Becky Quick about late last month, Buffett told us he didn't agree with Obama's call for a windfall profits tax on large oil companies or with his decision to forego public financing of his campaign.

And given his concern about "exploding" inflation in the U.S., Buffett probably doesn't support Obama's talk of a second economic stimulus package.

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