Coming along just as the economy has begun to recover, Buffett’s bid on Tuesday to buy the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. amounts to an “all-in wager on the economic future of the United States,” the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in an announcement.

“I love these bets.”

One of the world’s richest men, Buffett increasingly has been sharing his affections for American investments, including a personal essay in The New York Times about a year ago.

He heralded a $5 billion investment in financial giant Goldman Sachs Group amid the financial crisis last fall, and he trumpeted a $3 billion buy into General Electric Co. barely a week after that.

The key difference with Tuesday’s announcement is that Buffett is buying BNSF outright, in what would be the biggest deal in Berkshire’s history.