World’s Top Investor Says Panic Over

The New Year celebrations have already begun. Warren Buffett, the storied investor whose words the world follows, says America has finally bid goodbye to the worst. Across the Atlantic, as if on cue, the Eurozone's year-long recession, too, ended as output grew in the third quarterCapitalism Is Alive,Declares Buffett Jonathan Stempel and Clare Baldwin NEW YORK    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 US economy's struggles persist. "The financial panic is behind us," the world's second-richest person said at Columbia University's business school. "Our economy was sputtering, still is sputtering some."      Mr Buffett, 79, nevertheless said there is greater opportunity for investments inside the US than outside, noting that the US economy is far larger than any other. He appeared at Columbia with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest person and a Buffett friend and bridge partner. Last month, preliminary government data showed the US economy expanded in the third quarter, the first threemonth period of growth since the second quarter of 2008. Nonetheless, the US unemployment rate last month reached 10.2%, the first double-digit reading in 26 years.      Mr Buffett last week made a big bet on the US economy when his Berkshire Hathaway agreed to pay about $26.4 billion for the 77% of railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe that it did not already own. "There will be more people in this country, 10, 20, 30 years from now," Mr Buffett said. "They'll be moving more and more goods back and forth to each other and the most environmentally friendly and cost-efficient way of doing that is railroads."      Mr Buffett said rail transport uses one-third less fuel and pollutes the air less than trucks, and that one train can supplant about 280 trucks. Mr Gates, who is also a Berkshire director, said other sectors might also boost the economy, including information technology, energy and medicine. — Reuters BUFFETT: The Oracle Speaks