Time For A Holiday

I never imagined that Berkshire Hathaway would be trading down 20 percent in a few days. Berkshire shareholders, at least the lunatics who go to Omaha, are supposed to be very long-term investors. I believe that this is a clear indication that everyone, including very conservative investors, is panicking.

I’d like to recommend that we take a page from Roosevelt’s book and take the entirety of next week off. The market needs a break.

A few things that should be on the agenda next week:
* Sort out and announce the full list of companies involved with the TARP program. Change securities laws as appropriate to allow banks to issue preferred shares.
* Take control and stabilize Citigroup
* Determine the liquidity requirements of automobile manufacturers and provide low-interest cash loans. A bankruptcy would be far costlier since the government would assume pension obligations.
* Implement temporary banking regulations to encourage lending and investment. Maybe we need to take some radical steps, like penalize banks that are hording cash, and this would be the time to do it.
* It could be time for industry leaders, such as Warren Buffett, to start providing fireside chats during primetime.
* President-elect Obama should nominate a Treasury Secretary, sooner rather than later, just to get that uncertainty out of the way.