Correct Bacchus if you read what he says you notice he says people are right to be fearful of geared companies with weak competitive positions. This means he also thinks there's a good chance they're goners.
What he's saying in effect is that if you buy quality US stocks there's a very slim chance you'll lose money.
I see Microsoft selling for less than 10 times earnings and I think to myself how the heck is that not a good price.
I remember using windows 3.1 back in 1990 almost 20 years ago.... they've been around for a long time, and chances are they'll still be around in the next 10 years.
That's what I think he's talking about.
CNBC did a news report about Buffett's opinion piece, it includes a nice little graph of the times he's made such predictions in the past, and the results of those predictions:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27235731/
guess what they've ALL been spot on! (yes, in some of those calls to buy the stock market fell further but taking a long term view - they've been remarkably profitable)
