Omaha | Billionaire Warren Buffett says critics of stock buybacks are “either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue” or both, and all investors benefit from them as long as they are made at the right prices.

Mr Buffett used part of his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) to tout the benefits of repurchases that Wall Street critics such as US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and many other Democrats love to criticise. The federal government even added a 1 per cent tax on buybacks this year after they ballooned to roughly $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) last year.

AP