Buffett's jabs at finance lack relevance, readers say

InvestmentNews readers yawned in reaction to Warren Buffett's latest jabs at Wall Street, bankers and financial professionals, with a clear majority responding in a poll this week that the Oracle from Omaha's disparaging comments about the broad finance industry were either "not relevant to me" or "entirely irrelevant."

In an informal, nonscientific poll taken Tuesday and Wednesday on Twitter and LinkedIn, the 77 respondents indicated that Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and a legendary value investor, may no longer hold the dominant position of thought leadership in the financial services industry that he did a decade or two ago.

Buffett made the comments Saturday at the annual shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Nebraska, the first in three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In one bromide, Buffett said, "The money is in churning stocks. Wall Street makes money, one way or another, catching the crumbs that fall off the table of capitalism."

In another, he criticized money managers and financial professionals, saying "monkeys" could do as good a job running money. "You can have monkeys throwing darts at the page, and, you know, take away the management fees and everything, I’ll bet on the monkeys," he said, according to a report from CNBC.com.

InvestmentNews readers felt little sting from Buffett's comments. Sixty-two of the 77 — or 81% — said the comments were “not relevant to me” or “entirely irrelevant.” And just 19%, or 15 readers, in both polls said Buffett's comments were sparking them to “reconsidering my career.”

A spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway did not return a call Wednesday morning to comment.