A 94-year-old man can afford to give advice to a 78-year-old "youngster," even if the latter is president of the United States. Legendary American investor Warren Buffett took advantage of his annual letter to shareholders, published on Saturday, February 22, to remind Donald Trump of a basic economic responsibility: Keep the dollar stable.
Obviously, beyond his canonical age, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has a few arguments to put forward in order to be listened to. In 1956, he bought a struggling textile company that hadn't paid taxes in 10 years, he recalled: Since then, his holding company has paid over $101 billion to the US Treasury (including almost $27 billion in 2024), "far more than any other American company, including the titans of tech."
Spend this money – and future Berkshire Hathaway contributions – "wisely," he urged "Uncle Sam," aka "Uncle Donald." Take care of people who have had the misfortune to "draw the short straw" in life, added the Democratic donor, "they deserve it." And above all, he continued, "Never forget that we need you to maintain a stable currency and that this outcome requires both wisdom and vigilance on your part."
Buffet's message, coupled with a call to be wary of paper money, whose value could evaporate if "fiscal folly prevails," sounded like a warning against the risk of an inflationary backlash, fueled in particular by a possible extension of tax cuts by the new administration. According to the latest barometers, this concern is being voiced by business leaders and consumers alike.
But it's hard not to see it as an allusion to the hypothesis rumbling around Wall Street of a massive, Trump-orchestrated devaluation of the dollar in order to bring down the value of the enormous US debt held outside the country. Code-named the "Mar-a-Lago Accord," the fictional scenario involves putting pressure on the rest of the world, with threats of tariffs or insecurity, in order to obtain an appreciation of the euro or the yuan. The wise old man from Omaha, Nebraska, is there to remind us that American business needs stability above all. In the Disney Studios' 1940 film Fantasia, the sorcerer's apprentice was Mickey, not Donald. But that will not reassure anyone.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.