Buffet on Bailouts: 'Should Be Left Dead Broke'

WSJ Deal Journal Blogger Shira Ovide tells us what Warren Buffet said Saturday about Wall Street players whose companies needed bailouts. 

The Oracle of Omaha answered questions, with his pal Charlie Munger, at the celebrated Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting today.

At 1:27pm, this is what Buffet said, as live-blogged by Ovide:

Did we fix too big to fail?

Buffett last year issued a "thank you" letter to America, praising taxpayers for the bailouts that saved Wall Street, and -- he conceded -- rescued his investments, too.

Now, Buffett says the U.S. hasn't really solved the "too big to fail" problem -- or the risk of financial institutions growing so large and so important that the government can't let them topple.

Buffett said it's inevitable that the government may need to bail out some companies even if "people won't like it." But the price, he said, should be very high.

The "problem will always be with us. For that reason you have to do things to reduce the propensity to fail," Buffett says. How?

CEOs of companies that need bailouts, and their spouses, should be left "dead broke," Buffett said.

And the board should suffer too, he says.

For more WSJ Blog Deal Journal about Berkshire Hathaway's meeting, click on this link. For more about Buffet, read Snowball.