According to Warren Buffet, the worse of our most recent financial troubles is behind us. “The financial panic is behind us,” he is quote as saying in a recent Yahoo Finance article. “The bottom has come in stocks. Don’t pass on something that’s attractive today.”

Buffet seems to be putting is money where his mouth is, having recently purchased the railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe. But, Buffet isn’t the only one proclaiming that business is alive and well in the United States. In fact, Buffet recently paired up with Bill Gates to address a group of 1,000 people at Columbia University in New York. Here, he not only discussed the recession, he also talked about the future plans of Microsoft.

“We proved that we can make mistakes,” said Gates. “But the fundamentals of the system, a marketplace-driven system where we invest in education and a great infrastructure for the long-term, that’s continued.”

Gates went on to say that, even while experiencing the country’s “darkest hour,” American businesses are still innovating and moving forward. Buffet seemed to echo this sentiment, saying, “Last fall was really blindsiding.” Yet, he went on to say, “I did not worry about the overall survival of our economy.”

Despite the fact that economists are now ready to declare the recession to be over, it will still be some time before they will be ready to consider it to be recovered. In fact, a government survey found that 190,000 more jobs were lost in October, which makes it the 22nd consecutive month in which jobs were lost. Overall, the unemployment rate in the country has now reach 10.2%. Still, the fact that heavy hitters such as Buffet and Gates are feeling confident about our economy is certainly reassuring to those who are still feeling uncertain.