2020: What is the possible the range of outcomes from COVID-19?

WARREN BUFFETT: I would say the range of probabilities — or possibilities — on the economic side are still extraordinarily wide.

We do not know exactly what happens when you voluntarily shut down a substantial portion of your society.

In 2008 and ’09, our economic train went off the tracks. And there were some reasons why the roadbed was weak, in terms of the banks and all of that sort of thing, but —

This time we just pulled the train off the tracks and put it on a siding. And I don’t really know of any parallel of a — in terms of a very, very — well, the most important country in the world — the most productive — huge population — in effect, sidelining its economy and its workforce.

And obviously, and unavoidably, creating a huge amount of anxiety and changing people’s psyche, and causing them to somewhat lose their bearings — in many cases understandably.

This is quite an experiment. And we may know the answer to most of the questions reasonably soon, but we may not know the answers to some very important questions for many years.

So, it still has this enormous range of possibilities.