Warren Buffett: The financial panic is over (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, perhaps the world's most admired investor, said on Thursday the financial panic that gripped the globe last year is a thing of the past, even as the U.S.

Warren Buffett, perhaps the world's most admired investor, said Thursday the financial panic that gripped the globe last year is a thing of the past, even as the U.S. economy's struggles persist.

As usual, Warren Buffett had plenty to say at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual general meeting in Omaha, Nebraska this weekend as more than 35,000 people descended on the company’s home town. On Saturday, the meeting opened as it always does. This year’s video montage included a duet between Mr. Buffett and singer Jon Bon Jovi as well as a take-off on the TV series Breaking Bad.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who oversees stakes in some of the largest U.S. banks, said the nation’s lenders have rebuilt capital to the point where they no longer pose a threat to the economy. “The banks will not get this country in trouble, I guarantee it,” Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in a phone interview last week. “The capital ratios are huge, the excesses on the asset side have been largely cleared out.”

By Bottom Up Investments: Thursday, we wrote an article suggesting investors purchase Bank of America because, among other reasons, Warren Buffett had agreed to invest in the Company. Most of the pushback we received centered on the fact that Buffett was seemingly raking BAC over the coals on the deal.

US investor Warren Buffett has raised his holding in Munich Re, the world's leading re-insurance company, a statement to financial markets said on Thursday.Buffett now owns directly or indirectly more than five percent of the voting rights in Munich Re, after taking options on 1.945 percent of its capital in addition to a previous stake of 3.08 percent.Shares in the re-insurance group gained 1.05 percent to 111 euros in morning trading at Frankfurt's DAX 30 stock exchange, which was up by 1.18 percent overall.

I've long admired Warren Buffett and still do. I've heard him tell many times how his secretary pays a larger percentage of her small income on taxes than he pays on his large income. Sometimes he elaborates; sometimes he doesn't. When he doesn't, he does a great disservice to the cause of financial literacy in ...