Finance

Warren Buffett calls Trump’s tariffs a tax on goods, says ‘the Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay ’em’

Published

4 months ago

March 2, 2025

Business Finance News

Warren Buffett at a press conference during the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting on April 30, 2022.

CNBC

Legendary investor Warren Buffett made a rare comment on President Donald Trump’s tariffs, saying punitive duties could trigger inflation and hurt consumers.

“Tariffs are actually, we’ve had a lot of experience with them. They’re an act of war, to some degree,” said Buffett, whose conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has large businesses in insurance, railroad, manufacturing, energy and retail. He made the remarks in an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell for a new documentary on the late publisher of the Washington Post, Katharine Graham.

“Over time, they are a tax on goods. I mean, the Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay ’em!” Buffett said with a laughter. “And then what? You always have to ask that question in economics. You always say, ‘And then what?'”

This marks the first public remark from the 94-year-old “Oracle of Omaha” on Trump’s trade policies. Last week, Trump announced that the sweeping 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada will go into effect March 4 and that China will be charged an additional 10% tariff on the same date. China has vowed to retaliate.

During Trump’s first term, the Berkshire chair and CEO opined at length in 2018 and 2019 about the trade conflicts that erupted, warning that the Republican’s aggressive moves could cause negative consequences globally.

When asked about the current state of the economy by CBS, Buffett refrained from commenting on it directly.

“Well, I think that’s the most interesting subject in the world, but I won’t talk, I can’t talk about it, though. I really can’t,” Buffett said.

Buffett has been in a defensive mode over the past year as he rapidly dumped stocks and raised a record amount of cash. Some read Buffett’s conservative moves as a bearish call on the market and the economy, while others believe he’s preparing the conglomerate for his successor by paring outsized positions and building up cash.

Market volatility has ramped up as of late as concerns grew about a slowing economy, unpredictable policy changes from Trump as well as overall stock valuations. The S&P 500 is up just about 1% this year.

Finance

New ETF gives investor chance to act like a private equity giant

Published

6 hours ago

June 15, 2025

Business Finance News

VanEck moves first to target alternative asset managers themselves

The S&P 500 is less than 3% from an all-time high. Six of its 11 sectors are within 5% of an all-time high. But even as the U.S. stock market index proves its resilience during a volatile stretch for investors, more money from within portfolios is expected to shift in to privately traded companies.

Jan Van Eck, CEO of ETF and mutual fund manager VanEck, says the trend of companies staying private for longer rather than seeking an initial public offering is here to stay and it offers new opportunities.

High-profile examples include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Sam Altman’s OpenAI and fintech Stripe.

According to Van Eck, allocations to private assets will jump from a current average portfolio holding level of approximately 2% to 10% in the years ahead.

Some ETFs have begun to invest small portions of their assets in privately held company shares, including SpaceX, such as the ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF (XOVR). VanEck has launched an ETF tackling the private opportunity in a different way: taking big positions in the publicly traded shares of the investment giants, including private equity firms and other alternative asset managers, that own many private companies.

The VanEck Alternative Asset Manager ETF (GPZ), which launched this month, has a portfolio holdings list that includes Brookfield, Blackstone, KKR, Brookfield Asset Management and Apollo, which combined make up almost 50% of the fund. TPG, Ares and Carlyle are also big positions, in the 5% range each.

The new ETF extends an existing focus on private markets for VanEck. For over a decade, it has offered investors access to private credit, through the VanEck BDC Income ETF (BIZD), which invests in the business development companies that lend to small- and mid-sized private companies. That ETF has a high level of exposure to Ares, Blue Owl, Blackstone, Main Street and Golub Capital, which make up about half of the fund. It pays a hefty dividend of 11%.

Investing private through a publicly traded ETF

“You have to believe this is a secular trend and growth will be higher than that for normal money managers, including ETF and mutual fund managers,” said Van Eck.

He cautions, however, there is more volatility in these funds compared to the public equity market overall. “You have to size it appropriately,” he added.