Is the U.S. a castle with a moat?
A Kansas shareholder asked Buffett whether the U.S. is “a castle with a moat,” and if it is, how can we enlarge the moat? Buffett replied that over the last 215 years the U.S. has done much better than the rest of the world, but the U.S. isn’t an economic castle. The rest of the world is catching on–adopting some of the “best practices” of this country. Buffett: “The more trade we have, the better.” Buffett noted that our prosperity won’t come at the expense of the rest of the world. Munger added that if, 50-100 years from now, the U.S. is in third place [economically] to some country in Asia, we will still have grown economically, but it will be an odd sort of increase. All told, Munger said, Asian countries will probably do the best in terms of annual percentage gains. Comment: We selected this question because Buffett–unlike some others who have expressed concern about the trade deficit–is not opposed to international trade. Indeed, he remarked that “the more trade we have, the b
