Every cloud has a silver lining. Warren Buffett earned more than $10 billion during the global financial crisis. He managed to turn a loss into profit by lending to the blue-chip companies in the midst of the crisis of 2008. Berkshire Hathaway extended credit lifelines of nearly $26 billion and generated “nearly 40 per cent the pretax income on his crisis-era investments”, Wall Street Journal says. In experts’ opinion, since not all of the borrowers have paid off the debt yet, the total revenue may be even higher. For example, one of the world’s leading food manufacturers Mars Inc. has repaid Berkshire Hathaway $4.4 billion the other day. Buffett’s net profit on the candy maker amounted to $680 million. The statistics showed that the famous billionaire managed not only to invest well his savings, but also yield more profit than anybody else during the panic period. Even the American government did not beat his success. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, within a special anti-crisis program named Troubled Asset Relief, invested in struggling companies about $420 billion. However, it earned just 12% of this amount - $50 billion. Meanwhile, Warren Buffett reaped as much as 40%.
