Buffett on Small Business: ‘It’s an economic war’

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, Investing, Business, News

4 • 494 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon address the biggest challenges facing the backbone of the American economy: the thousands of small businesses struggling with no sign of federal relief. “It’s an economic war,” says America’s best-known investor, about the uneven prospects of recovery for smaller firms. Buffett urges Congress to do something - now - and start with a new Paycheck Protection Program. “Just renew the PPP and get us to the end of the tunnel.” A bipartisan group in Congress released $908 billion legislation yesterday for economic stimulus. The proposal includes about $300 billion to support small businesses, a group exceptionally hard-hit by the economic slowdown of the pandemic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Squawk Pod. I'm
0:03.7	C. NBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on our podcast,
0:07.1	Warren Buffett on Small Business.
0:09.9	It's the seed corn of the America of, you know, 2030 and 2040.
0:15.0	The Oracle of Omaha wants American entrepreneurs to get federal help soon.
0:20.0	I hope very much that they extend the PPP plan on a large scale to let the people who may see the light at the end of the tunnel get to the end of the tunnel.
0:32.0	It's an economic war.
0:34.4	And Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, the Wall Street giant, investing a billion dollars
0:39.3	this year in Main Street.
0:41.4	These small businesses really support our communities, they support families, they're really a foundation
0:46.6	of our economy.
0:47.6	If we lose these small businesses as a society, we lose big.
0:51.4	The banker says a post-Covid recovery has to mean everybody.
0:55.0	Even as we make progress with the vaccine and we get to a better place economically,
1:00.0	you can't just flick the switch on and have all the jobs come back.
1:02.8	It takes some time to rebuild.
1:05.1	It's Tuesday, December 15th, 2020.
1:07.8	Squack Pod from
1:14.4	C.N.C. with Joe Kernan, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross
1:20.5	Sorkin. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a particularly hard toll on small businesses.
1:26.7	There are 28 million businesses with fewer than 1,500 employees.
1:30.6	They make up the lion's share of employers and function as economic engines for communities
	...

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