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Warren Buffett on coronavirus, capitalism & why he replaced his old phone with an iPhone

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Berkshire’s billionaire CEO Warren Buffett — legendary investor and one of Apple’s biggest shareholders — has finally traded in his old flip phone for an iPhone.

In an interview to CNBC, Buffett covered a wide array of topics ranging from his thoughts on Democratic presidential contenders Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg to cryptocurrencies to his new smartphone.

“My flip phone is permanently gone. The number’s been changed,” he said. He also added on a lighter note that he might crush his old phone at Berkshire Hathaway’s upcoming annual meeting in May.

Buffett has been known for deliberately keeping away from smartphones, preferring instead to use a Samsung flip phone until recently.

Will stocks catch the virus?

Talking on the spread of coronavirus, Buffet called it “scary stuff.” However, he did not see it affecting his stock picks, saying “I don’t think it should affect what you do in stocks.” The outbreak has not changed his long-term outlook, he added.

Investors with a 10 to 20-year time horizon and focused on companies’ earnings power will fare well in stocks, he said.

Markets worldwide fell on Monday on concern about how the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, which began in China and has spread to several countries including Italy, South Korea and Iran, could disrupt supply chains and slow global economic growth.

Don’t let crypto be your kryptonite

At the interview, Buffett reaffirmed his aversion to cryptocurrencies saying he doesn’t own cryptocurrency, and that ‘he never will’. “Cryptocurrencies basically have no value and they don’t produce anything,” he said.

A longtime critic of the bitcoin, Buffett had called the world’s largest digital coin “probably rat poison squared”, ahead of the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting.

And Buffett’s vote goes to…

Talking of the upcoming US elections, Buffett has agreed with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders that capitalism has left working Americans behind and regulation will be needed to curb its excesses.

“We ought to do better by the people that get left behind by our capitalist system,” the billionaire investor said. “I don’t think we should kill the capitalist system in the process.”

“We should make sure the golden goose keeps laying more eggs and it’s worked wonderfully since 1776,” the longtime Democrat continued.

He, however, disagreed with Sanders’ plan to give workers larger ownership stakes, rivaling those of investors, on corporate boards. Buffett said he would choose Mike Bloomberg — the former New York City mayor who’s amassed a sizable fortune of his own — over Sanders.

Berkshire Hathaway is one of the most valuable companies in the US, worth more than $560 billion. Buffett’s company holds sizeable chunks of blue-chip names like Apple, Bank of America (BAC), Coca-Cola (CCEP) and American Express (AXP).

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