The relevance here isn’t so much the weight his name carries in the financial community, but the fact that he’s a vocal supporter of President Obama. Buffett isn’t exactly prone to criticize the president or his policies, and yet here the Oracle of Omaha is insisting that the economy remains in total shambles:

BECKY:  The last time we sat down to talk to you was on May 4, and at that point you told us that you think we’re in an economic war right now.  How much progress do you think we’ve made in that war?

BUFFETT:  Well, it’s been pretty flat.  I get figures on 70-odd businesses, a lot of them daily.  Everything that I see about the economy is that we’ve had no bounce.  The financial system was really where the crisis was last September and October, and that’s been surmounted and that’s enormously important.   But in terms of the economy coming back, it takes a while.  There were a lot of excesses to be wrung out and that process is still underway and it looks to me like it will be underway for quite a while.  In the (Berkshire Hathaway) annual report I said the economy would be in a shambles this year and probably well beyond.  I’m afraid that’s true.

The good news here? There isn’t any. We’re expecting double-digit unemployment by the end of the year, inflation is going to be high, major companies are still filing for bankruptcy, financial institutions remain in serious trouble, the automakers we now own don’t appear to be doing any better, and Obama is hinting at another deficit-exploding stimulus package. Oh, and the Dow Jones closed down again today.

As National Journal has editorialized, Democrats better be praying that the economy recovers by next year’s election. Americans aren’t going to be thrilled if we’ve spent many trillions of dollars, nationalized industries, expanded governmental power, raised taxes, and the economy still hasn’t turned around.