Warren Buffet, the world's wealthiest person, is on the road searching for new acquisitions for Berkshire Hathaway. The twist is that he is searching in Europe, so that he can increase his company's exposure to the strong Euro and avoid investing in companies whose value is measured in the weak U.S. Dollar. Berkshire Hathaway has $35 billion in cash, and Buffet wants to put the money to work where he will get the biggest bang for his buck, so to speak. Ironically, he's decided that those dollars will go farther if they're invested in companies that don't earn dollars at all, but Euros instead. Buffet has shorted the greenback at various times for most of this decade, and made his first non-U.S. acquisition in 2006 when he purchased Iscar Metalworking Co., a tool manufacturer based in Israel.
Buffet is not shy when it comes to predicting further U.S. Dollar weakness. "The U.S. is going to continue to follow policies that make the dollar weaker,'' he said at Berkshire's recent annual meeting, which has become something of a financial Woodstock. This year's meeting was attended by an amazing 31,000 shareholders and Buffet fans. Usually when you hear about 31,000 people packing an arena to see a man named Buffet, his first name is Jimmy.
