The Saviour from Omaha

Thank god for Warren Buffett, he really is the saviour. His latest venture into the markets - buying $5bn of stock in Bank of America - reminds us of another time when he did his bit for America and capitalism.

In the last crisis he put money into AIG, GE and Goldman Sachs. Only history will tell us how close any or all of these businesses were to going bust. Perhaps he should be renamed the Saviour from Omaha, rather than the Sage? As far back as the first big crisis of this cycle – the collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) – Buffett had offered to step in. In that case his services were not needed, but perhaps if they had been we may not have got ourselves into this mess. Following the collapse of LTCM he described derivatives as “weapons of wealth destruction”, referr...