31-year-old Buffett Gotta say, he was really young back then. This was Buffett's first-ever TV interview. He said that although the stock market had risen 50% over the past four or five years, in reality, corporate profits hadn’t increased at all. You only find out who’s swimming naked when the tide goes out. The current drop is just because the previous rise was too crazy, combined with the domino effect of leveraged players getting liquidated. Prices will eventually return to their true value.