"Congress should act" to help victims of the COVID "economic war"

In a live interview Tuesday morning (preliminary transcript) on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Warren Buffett urged Congress to help the many small businesses that have been especially hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Noting that large businesses have done relatively well with the help of the Federal Reserve's moves to make capital available to them, Buffett said that for small businesses like family-owned restaurants, government help "is not getting them to the end of the tunnel."

Restrictions designed to fight COVID also "just killed the economics for somebody that may have been working for decades with their family to build a business, reinvest the earnings to improve their establishment, and then, through no fault of their own, an edict comes along that kills all their dreams."

He believes "it would be so foolish to not follow through on this, and enable those people to get back to where they could do the kind of business they were doing before."      

Specifically, Buffett wants an extension of the government's Paycheck Protection Program that closed in early August.

And he said something needs to be done quickly, because "the boat is going down."

"If you're going to act a month from now, why kill off another x-percent of the people that are potential successes by procrastination or arguments or political differences."

Tonight, lawmakers continue to work on both a pandemic aid plan and a spending bill, with the threat of a government shutdown hanging over them.

For days, leaders of both parties have been saying they're close to agreement on a $900 billion relief bill that would include loans to small businesses, along with direct payments to Americans, and a boost for unemployment benefits.

The details, however, remain elusive.

And even $900 billion would be, in President-elect Joe Biden's view, just a "down payment," with more aid needed after he takes office.

"I would love to trade places with any of you"

In prerecorded comments to be played Saturday morning during a virtual celebration for new graduates at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Buffett ('51) says those graduates may feel they're "going out into an uncertain world," but "there's never been a better time."

The entire 10-minute phone conversation with Chancellor Ronnie Green will be posted on the school's website when the commencement ceremony begins streaming at 10 AM ET.

Spend an hour with Charlie Munger

Caltech has posted a 59-minute remote-video "Conversation with Distinguished Alumnus Charles T. Munger" that covers a wide variety of topics, including investing, technological change, and philanthropy.  (Business Insider compiled some of the more notable quotations here.)

Buffett to be honored in NBC special broadcast

Warren Buffett is being awarded the Global Citizen Prize for Philanthropy as "historically the most giving person in the world."

He'll be featured, along with other prize winners, including Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson, Elton John, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on NBC tomorrow, Saturday 19, at 8 PM ET/7:30 PM PT. (NBC and CNBC both share NBCUniversal as their corporate parent.) 

It will also be broadcast or streamed globally.

Global Citizen describes itself as "a movement of engaged citizens who are using their collective voice to end extreme poverty by 2030."

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS - Dec 18, 2020

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.

Holdings are as of September 30, 2020 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway and New England Asset Management's 13F filings on November 16, 2020.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch