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Munger Tells 25 Million Americans To "Suck It In", And To "Thank God For Bank Bailouts" As BRK Benefits From $95 Billion Of TARP Funding
There is a reason why many countries institute mandatory retirement age: it is so that when dementia strikes, and people spout any damn thing that comes to mind, only the nearest four walls are subject to their insanity. Alas, when it comes to Berkshire Hathaway, no such luck. And while we have extensively discussed Warren Buffett's recent inexorable decline from merely a successful rider of the biggest cheap credit bubble in history to a captured puppet of Wall Street courtesy of his tens of billions of Wall Street-related investments, little has been said about his even older, and apparently even more affected by the unpleasant side-effects of a public televised senescence, sidekick, Charlie Munger. Luckily, courtesy of Bloomberg we now know just how deep the rot runs in the Berkshire family. During a discussion at the Universtiy fo Michigan, the 86 year old told the 25 million of Americans who comprise the 16.7% of the underemployed population in the country, to "suck it in and cope." Not only that, but apparently, all those who have been without a job for 99 weeks and more and no longer have recourse to insurance benefits, should "thank God for bank bailouts." Why of course he would say that: after all $26 billion worth of direct BRK investments were the recipient of over $95 billion in bailouts. So when it comes to him, thank god for the bailout indeed... But when it comes to the little man, old Charlie is all about doing the right thing.
It gets better:
Bank rescues allowed the U.S. to avoid what could have been an “awful” downturn and will help the country as it deals with the housing slump, Munger, 86, said. He used the example of post-World War I Germany to explain how the bailouts under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama were “absolutely required to save your civilization.”
“Hit the economy with enough misery and enough disruption, destroy the currency, and God knows what happens,” Munger said. “So I think when you have troubles like that you shouldn’t be bitching about a little bailout. You should have been thinking it should have been bigger.”
Germany was unable to stabilize its financial system in the 1920s, and, Munger said, “We ended up with Adolf Hitler.”
Nowhere in Munger's ridiculous hypocritical ramblings does the old man mention that it was precisely the same currency debasement, wanton money printing and incipient hyperinflation that created Adolf Hitler out of the failed Keynesian experiment that was the Weimar Republic. Just as nowhere does he discuss his massive conflicts of interest that would have bankrupted the billionaire should the equity in banks have been wiped out, and Berkshire's holdings, together with its multi billions bet against the S&P, would have wiped out the firm, its shareholders and its management. Because lest we forget:
Munger slipped 16 places to 230th on Forbes magazine’s 2009 ranking of the wealthiest Americans as Berkshire’s stock gain last year trailed the advance in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. His stake in Berkshire, which didn’t take government aid, is worth about $1.6 billion.
As for how many of the companies that Berkshire has invested in did take government aid, well, that is an entirely different issue altogether.
We couldn't agree more with Joshua Rosner:
“Charlie Munger is misrepresenting history, and that’s why the public is angry at Wall Street,” said Joshua Rosner, an analyst at research firm Graham Fisher & Co. “We could have wiped out the equity holders before we wiped out the taxpayer.”
But of course, this would mean going back to the aforementioned conflict of interest, and Munger's apparent incomprehension that a business' operations can continue even as its balance sheet is being restructured. But Restructuring 101 is so simple and so logical, that we can see how that ten or so viable synapses in his head may have forgotten about it.
More on Munger's descent into dementia:
At the Michigan event, one questioner said he had attended both Berkshire and Wesco meetings. “You mean the groupies have followed me here?” Munger asked. To another who asked whether the government should have bailed out homeowners instead of Wall Street, Munger said: “You’ve got it exactly wrong.”
“There’s danger in just shoveling out money to people who say, ‘My life is a little harder than it used to be,’” Munger said at the event, which was moderated by CNBC’s Becky Quick. “At a certain place you’ve got to say to the people, ‘Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.’”
When one hears hypocrisy like that, what can one say but - Charlie Munger. Of course, when financial organizations, and complete bankrupt states comes begging for money to their respective central banks, as is the case each and every day in Europe, and soon among the various broke states in the US, not to mention thousands of pension funds, sucking it in is such an anathema. Or at least it would be to people like Munger and Buffett, who have invested their entire life savings in the perpetuation of a regime that will eventually result in the same social upheaval if not outright global conflict, that Munger laments caused WW2.
Luckily for him, he won't be around to see it.
300 million other Americans, however, won't have the same privilege.
For those who wish to projectile vomit at their monitors, here are two straight hours of unbridled hypocrisy.
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"Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.’”
so will say the Reaper as Charlie takes his last inhale.
well said-I got a good laugh out of that!
+1.
The Reaper can't come quick enough for him and his partner in crime.
It is statements like these issuing forth from Charlie that make me wish I could punch people through the internet.
Please, someone draft the Inter-PUNCH protocol, stat!
Sumbitch didn't even offer us any cake
Very funny, Mr. Tyler. :)
Charlie Munger, have you lost your mind? You certainly have lost touch with the reality facing nearly everyone but your elite class.
We, the people, have been "sucking it in" for the last couple of years. And because we have, at the point of the government gun, been sentenced to years of tax servitude in order for you to ensure your viability or bail your ass out, please allow me to warn you that there are few things more incendiary than a wealthy bastard and recipient of our tax donations, attempting to boost our morale with an austerity play.
But we don't get mad, we just sell our BRK.
Perhaps I can fulfill my role as one of the resident reminders of human behavior here at good 'ole ZH to help identify what is occurring.
What do deathbed confessions (which are leveraged in a quite excellent fashion by certain, ahem, "non-profit" organizations), Greenspan's recent admissions, and now (tossed salad) Munger Charlie have in common?
Guilt, and the driving need/desire to attempt to come clean in order to have a clear conscience as one reaches the inevitable end-of-the-line. Try this on for size:
Riddle me this - as the crisis continues to unfold with no respite, and in fact begins to accelerate as all vestiges of bullshit are whipped away by brute force, will we begin to see (a) more, or (b) less confessions and revelations of the truth, either directly or via pseudonymous proxies?
I would argue (a). While those still ensconced within official circles will try and maintain (b), human nature is still too strong and will overpower these puny attempts as individuals go 'rogue' and spill the beans.
Agreed.....the truth wants to be found.
Perhaps I'm a little slow on the uptake, but let me make an attempt at what you are saying:
If you are old as dirt and on your deathbed, like Charlie Munger, the confessions are not only brutal but more of a "stick that in your poorhouse, biatches" tone. For why not? You're almost six feet under anyway.
If you are younger-- and you still want to live a life without fear of hanging (or worse)-- you set the tone of your confessions on the side of the poor huddled masses. You are surprised and shocked you participated in the shell game-- becuase you didn't think it was a shell game. You either move to the deep woods of Northern Califionia and get a plot near Neal Kashkari-- or you move to Paraguay and live among the Bushes when the time comes. Somehow, Alan Greenspan thinks he has time to live-- or he would have been a heckuva lot more brutal.
Well said indeed ... My sentiments were similar when listening to our former President, Mr. Clinton last week on the Daily Show last week.
In case you missed the 2-part interview ==>
September 16, 2010 - Bill Clinton - The Daily Show With Jon ..."We, the people, have been "sucking it in" for the last couple of years."
With stagnant wages, a lot of people ahve been sucking it in for a decade or more now. I wonder if Mr. Munger's income was stagnant over the last ten years.
Sorry, you're right, and I was too short in my timeline.
Marie Antoinette also had similar things to say to the poor before the French Revolution!
We can only hope that the peasants are running out of patience with the wealthy elite. It certainly appears that the aristocrats have decided that the workers are no longer a danger to them, so they can say any damn thing they want to.
Seriously! Munger saying that his life's been harder since this all happened--while having more than $1 billion in personal wealth.
Dear Real IRA, we heard about your "banker relief" program in Ireland. Do you guys work in America too?
Mr. Munger, we know where you live.
I'm pretty sure she didn't actually utter the "Let them eat cake" line. It may well have been the sentiment of the oligarchs of that time.
she did say this line, but it was not intended that way. "cake" was very common and cheap (used alot to line pantries) so she ignorantly suggested that they could eat this source.
fuckin msm always creating spin
At least Marie offered food. Although junk food. Although back then there were no artifical colors, preservatives and Monsanto the death angel didn’t exist. So yeh, she offers basically health food and went headless. Imagine if your average ahole on the street were to actually wake up from Charlie’s slap and really suck it in.
Suck it in and cope ...bitchez!
Breaking legs for $500.00 , Alex...
Better yet, put Munger, Biden, and FLOTUS together on live television for 30 minutes on a Thursday night on an empty stage (except for some bottles of Gin, Rolling Rock, and Midol) with 3 mics . Run only GM and Ally Bank commercials. I would guarantee revolution before the weekend.
What fucking jack ass.
you have a gift of being able to get right to the heart of the matter!
Whats the deal with the stimulus tomorrow? Anyone think we are due for a pause?
I pray to Jesus this guy will die soon in the most horrible and painful and lengthy fashion possible.
Ditto!
He'll get his. We all square up at the end i think.
Spot on. I've always thought of death as the great equalizer.
Had I been there, I'd have had a question for the audience:
Anybody want to join me in taking this asshole out back and beating the shit out of him?
Didn't a young Jesus bitch-slap greed when it crossed the common good but didn't have a problem with interest/investments/PE Ratios and HFT?
Charlie Munger provides only the most recent example of why we should bring back public flogging and hanging. I hope your final days are spent in gut wrenching agony Charlie and that they last a long, long time. 99 weeks should just about do it.
I think Charlie Munger's blunt approach to decribing the financial crisis is refreshing.
Now where is that shovel I intended on using?
Munger jumped the shark, Buffett did a long time ago.
Buffet made it the honest way. Wink wink.
"It ain't me. I ain't me. I ain't no senators son!"
But I might be a congressman's son or be best buddies with that guy.
Someone needs to whack Charlie on the head with a bag of nickels; maybe that would bring him back into the real world with the rest of us.
How'd that sentiment work out for the elites in early-1790's France - eh, Chuck?
And we're better armed.
Then he shat on the carpet, stole the salt and pepper shakers from his table, and hightailed it for the limo.
Funny stuff ITG. Thanks for the laugh. Time for a diaper change.
Thank you Tyler, I've been saying it for years, Buffett and Munger are no more than tax evading credit riders.
1) 50% draw down
2) 6th largest TARP recipient
Reminds one of complaining farmers and farm subsidies....
Some people feel more ENTITLED than others....
Fuck this crusty, old asshole and the Becky Quick he rode in on.
From Old Bag to D-Bag in less than a decade...
I am ready to move from this country while we still have the cash...
Munger telegraphs the response from the oligarchs.
Charlie just qualified for biggest douche in the universe
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/153799
I won't shed a tear when the Grim Reaper comes for this parasitic crustacean...
Caught this earlier in the day with the sound off on the tv.... Can someone teach these billionaire's to sit up straight in a chair? Their body language tells a tale all on its own, not that I'm keen to "hate" extremely rich people but that to the degree they are materially possessed they appear for the most part to be somewhat physcially dis possessed -- always bending around -- angled -- etc. He scared me at sight within .02 seconds and indeed 50 years from now history books will show what a ruinous affair such a blown out Creditor vs Debtor Paradigm many of these birds perpetuate. Will take at least a couple generations to work out this genetic greed currently atop the heap on our Planet, but it will come...
Maybe Munger, from hunger, can show some beneficence and throw us a bob or two?
What a captured stooge.
And why was there a French Revolution....
another old prick doing God's work in his own way
Yes, Munger is probably going senile, but not mad. Because of his senility, Munger is now openly without guilt verbalizing his true perspective on life's struggle - a perspective I am confident he has had his entire business career - "I am elite and better than everyone else. Everyone else is here for my convenience only."
The only difference between Charlie and the likes of Warren B, George S, etc.... is that they can still control what they say regarding their true beliefs due to not being senile.
Old Charlie was a smart guy. Trouble is he took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. I think it may have been at his first billion...
Unfortunately our only repayment will come when we get to "spit on them from heaven for relief while they burn in hell"...
They and we really do live in different worlds, don't we. I guess this just clinches it.
I would probably be willing to volunteer for Hell if it meant I could shit stomp ole Mungers ball sack for eternity.
Funny money billionaires!
Aren't they a hoot?
Guillotines, bitchez!!!
“Hit the economy with enough misery and enough disruption, destroy the currency, and God knows what happens,” Munger said. “So I think when you have troubles like that you shouldn’t be bitching about a little bailout. You should have been thinking it should have been bigger"
Sounds a lot like the terrorist / Patriot Act speech. "So I think when you have troubles like that you shouldn't be bitching about a little bill of rights
"But Restructuring 101 is so simple and so logical, that we can see how that ten or so viable synapses in his head may have forgotten about it."
Who knew that there would be consequences to building an entire country populated by half-literates?
All you have to do is simply assert that there were no alternatives to the bailouts. What percentage of the general public can refute a statement like that?
Hey, I like this Charlie guy. He helped save GS, my gazillions, and BTW he's a friend of Warren's - so he's really OK.
Don't you get it Peons!!!!!!!!
Buffet is victim of what I call the "Francis Ford Coppola syndrome": many excellent achievements which makes him rich, and then senility strikes. We end up with Godfather III.
But Coppola had the excuse of only doing films.
Buffet and his acolytes are laughing at the unemployed and praising Keynesian policies which will ultimately bring the world to a horrible collapse.
Buffet will end his life ruined.
Buffett will end his life rich.
His lucky benefactors will end up in ruins.
It just occured to me after pulling up a 50+ years chart of the S&P-500 that the reason why Berkshire and the rest of the boys were all geniuses was because it kept moving from the lower left hand corner to the top right hand corner until the dot-com bubble burst.
Interesting.
This is what happens when you get old, youre too senile to lie
You simply cannot keep track anymore.
Mandatory retirement Sparta style
When old Charlie says “suck it in” to the empty stomachs of the struggling unemployed and underemployed, he has a different meaning for "suck it in" when he’s talking about his own stomach, which of course is well supplied with billions in suck up bailouts.
I do think oldness doesn't usually produce something good, especially when you're a rich baby-boomer. You tend to lose the sense of reality.
He's not too old to get shanked with a sharp knife!
The good news is, statistically speaking, he should be dead soon.
not soon, slowly
Munger is this moments poster boy for euthanasia. Give it a few seconds and another will emerge to take his place.
Why should these comments surprise anyone. People of wealth think the rest of us are shit. Love the story on Business Insider of the man making $450k a year complaining on how tough he has it. Can only afford 2 Mercedes.
I am adjusting my portfolio to have a heavier weighting of pitchforks, rope, tar, feathers, stocks, torches and guillotines....
So glad ZH picker up on this ass. I saw the article this morning on BB and nearly lost my breakfast.
Munger can eat shit.
Bankers will be exposed as the biggest asshats the world has ever seen.
And then we must decide what to do about it.
.22-250 in the face. If we could line up enough of them against a wall we could probably have a pretty good show.
Charlie should have told them that money isn’t everything; that money can’t buy happiness. Actually, it’s true. People with $10 billion are no happier than people with $9 billion.
they're not happier but they do have people to carry their emotional baggage
JR
Are you suggesting diminishing returns for thievery ??
Perhaps someone should help suck in Mungers neck with a leather belt.
Yep! The law of diminishing happiness returns. Just a little Munger facetiousness on my part, after hearing on talk radio “the $75,000 happiness threshold” for us little folk:
The Economics of Happiness (Part I) — The $75,000 Threshold | Joe Carter “ Sept 8, 2010
“Money can’t buy happiness,” as the uber-wealthy actor Johnny Depp once said, “But it can buy you a great big yacht to sale right up to it.”
Most of us will never be able to afford a yacht (and even those that do don’t want to pay the “sails tax”). Fortunately, new research reveals that happiness can be bought for a more modest sum: about $75,000 in income a year.
“The study found that people’s evaluations of their lives improved steadily with annual income. But the quality of their everyday experiences — their feelings — did not improve above an income of $75,000 a year…"
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/09/08/the-economics-of-happiness-part-i-%E2%80%94-the-75000-threshold/
And that’s just “Part I”…
Where's the vid. It would be even funnier the 2nd time around.
Time to grab the pitchforks, folks.
The Warren Buffet Ruin of 2011 will stay in history books.
Maybe when he'll be sleeping under a bridge, he'll admit he was wrong.
Fuck CM.
Its sneakily ironic that Mr Buffet probably watched the original ThunderBirds .
He's a young version of Brains but seriously connected.... to the puppet masters
When our Western leaders do everything in their power to save a ponzi system, a financial charade, instead of making changes that will return the west to a real power ,a wealth producing system you know the end is near.
This is what I love about these clowns... they give money away to charities to look like nice guys... ya - just a bunch of old grand dads who love kids, pets and ice cream... and then they talk out of the other side of their mouths... Munger says it all "suck it up". If Munger worked in a factory and was out of a job with kids to feed, his perspective would be different... and don't make the mistake to believe stuff like he'd go out and get a job, etc... when you belly is full, you can afford to have these nice parlor discussions that have no meaning. Real life is markedly different than rhetoric.
While I respect the knowledge that Buffet has contributed to the whole area of value investing, beneath that nice old lad drinking coke and eating dairy queen ice cream, we have a great supporter of population control - another term for eugenics that was all the rave ninety years ago.
For the most part, they are all a bunch of #uckin hypocrites and this is why many of us sock puppets have a healthy scepticism about these supposed leaders of industry.
Beneath the mythology, there is a gapping sewer and every once in a while, the stench rises - and today was just one of those days.
In the mean time... unfunded debt of $23,000,000,000,000.00 and counting...
Good ole Charlie "Let them eat cake!" Munger.
Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
Munger is too rich to be mad. He is now 'eccentric'.
Munger eats shit. He and Buffett would be dumpster diving for food if money hadn't been extorted from taxpayers to save their sorry asses.
I believe Orwell called this ritual, "Two Minutes Hate" in 1984.
i believe he did. nice catch. +1 back at ya.
These are the same assholes that supported and advise comrade obummer.....
Your piece on Mr Munger makes the following points broadly
-He is not intellectually sharp because of his age
-He & Mr Buffett backed bailouts for benefit to their personal wealth
-He has poor moral and ethical standards and did this only for self interest
-He and Mr Buffett are insensitive to the pain poorer Americans are suffering
-The bank bailouts was not effective and should not have been done
let me counter them
-He is not intellectually sharp because of his age-Berkshire's latest investment is BYD, found by Mr Munger and Li Lu. It's up 300% in a year and half and involves pretty complex stuff on battery technology.So he remains mentally agile.
-He & Mr Buffett backed bailouts for benefit to their personal wealth- The last time Munger and Buffett took a salary hike was 1978 to $100000, 32 years ago. 99% of Buffett's wealth is pledged to charity.U think they need the money ;-)
-He has poor moral and ethical standards and did this only for self interest-Berkshire has a super clean balance sheet. Buffett and Munger do not give themselves ESOPS, special consultation fees, special dividends.In the last 45 years they have never been indicted in any investigation by the SEC etc for anything like insider trading , unethical practices etc. Only in 74 there was a checking and it was inconclusive.Munger famously told Buffett to avoid tobacco companies though they are great businesses. need more proof?
Berkshire was a also a net supplier of capital to an extent of $16 billion :-)
-He and Mr Buffett are insensitive to the pain poorer Americans are suffering
Through timely articles in NYT and other magazines, by giving interviews, by setting up a small business fund Berkshire has done a fairly responsible job of helping the poor. The giving pledge is all about putting at least half your wealth to charity for rich folks as government cant afford to do it anymore.
Bank bailouts were a failure
Well banks are highly leveraged and they cause a negative network effect. They are leveraged 20-30 times their equity and a panic becomes a self fulling rumor , that is why there is the FDIC right. So bank bailout was good to stabilize the system
Yes cash for clunkers and other programs were too wasteful, not bank bailout
Try and be more fact rich and opinion poor. Might help
so they're Saints...
Pass the kool aid.
It's too early to claim "mission accomplished" on the bank bailouts. Moral hazard, increased national debt, etc. will decide long-term if it would have been better to prick the bubble then. It certainly would have been more 'intellectually honest' to do so - bailouts of private investors/citizens/foreign banks with taxpayer money bastardized capitalism even further. How much has it clouded the business environment. Has a crisis been averted forever? None of the issues that got us there have really been solved, just papered over. So, for the next crisis we will have established some bad habits, and also have fewer resources in which to actually restructure the structure of our economy.
@taderjoe I agree on this one totally. I think the bailout worked in the short run but its screwed up real bad in the long run and now there is papering over.
Well but we exchanged cardiac arrest for chronic blood pressure :-)
this is a totally valid point that long term problems remain and need to be sorted asap.
I disagree though that bailout was not needed, i think it was. yes it got screwed coz it got goldmanized but otherwise it was the right thing
LOL so the bailout was needed but it got screwed up because of Goldman but it's OK that Buffett and Munger profited from it? I can decide shill or moron.
Sorry the only response I can muster is "go fuck yourself along with CM"
yeah wow u should replace uninterested observer with incapable thinker as your chat name. expletives is the easy part, thinking and answering is tough. when ur iq beats ur shoe size we'll party
Its quite sad to see some of the comments , they are intellectually of such a low caliber they are not even worth responding to.
Ditto to yours. At least include a response, example, or some sort of opinion besides a general criticism. Ironic...
Yeah Buffett/ Munger are right and you guys are wrong
worse, ur sore losers who cling to opinion and think its fact :-)
I assume ur a cool day trader all the best at getting rich bro :-)
I think you might have missed the whole point of the post. Munger was telling people to "suck it up" after his firm benefited from billions upon billions of taxpayer bailouts. And then describing the bailouts as beneficial, that we were lucky that they were done, and that perhaps they should have been even bigger.
1. He got bailed out, why shouldn't other people? (BTW, I don't think anyone should have been bailed out.)
2. Telling people to suck it up when he wasn't willing to do so? (Don't ya think Buffett, Munger were calling Gov to get bailouts?)
3. And then trying to make us feel lucky? Of course, any alternative path not-taken only becomes a counter-factual. Maybe that world would have been "better"?
I think Buffett/Munger have made some great points over the years. But as they have gotten bigger, they have become entrenched in the "system" and perpetuate the robbing of the middle class.
And no, not a day trader...Just a silly name I picked to remember easily...
@traderjoe
you really think Lehman + AIG +Fannie +Freddie + possibly GE Cap going down together and our little bank accounts would still have been saved. well all the best bro , thatz all i gotta say.
No asshole and that is the point - the average person is going to get fucked anyway from the depression but assholes like Munger that benefitted from the governments largesse not only had their asses saved from insolvency but they get to profit from their fuck ups.
oh yeah thats like saying we are all gonna pop it any way why take medicine. cool huh.yeah and whatz ol man munger and warren gonna do with their wealth at 85, as far as i know it's already allocated to charity mostly
Right I forgot - only financial Oligarchs get bailouts.
Again, too early to claim victory. I think these things will come to pass anyway. It would have been far better to nationalize and dismantle these companies at the time, as true capitalism would have required. Instead, we have only furthered our crony capitalistic system, mal-investment, structural inefficiencies, etc.
But to argue these things is counter-factual. Maybe the stimulus did create or save x million jobs...
I think you would be happier on the MW site, or maybe CNBC?
+1
@web bot
they are not Saints, but well pretty close the best what corporate America has to offer.
Nice try hit and run oneliners :-). That is a debate style for street level politics, not maybe for serious economics.
Whatz ur idea of saints Blackstone , Carlyle , Fortress, Cerberus all the best to you
I think Warren and Charlie are pretty cool
They're both brilliant men and have contributed much to the field of value investing. I've learnt a lot from their writings.
What sickens me is the insensitivity of these comments. If you think that a person can operate as a whole being and should park their ethics at their office door in the morning, then you're in for a surprise at some point in your life. I've know people who done this... and it eventually comes back to bite them - in their relationships with spouses and children.
If you you're fine with that, then you subscribe to schizophrenia.
would appreciate if u can give a specific example of their parking their ethics at the door and their schizophrenia ??Am sure i can get u the correct details :-). As far as I know they are 100% transparent, and consistent at home and @work
I think he is giving good advise. That advise is to pay off your Mortgage, your Credit Cards. Do not spend what you do not have. If you cannot pay off your Mortgage then default and move in with your parents. Eventually you will inherit your parents house debt free. It costs less to heat a house with 6 people than 2 houses with 2 in one and 4 in another. Save on heating costs, Insurance, Property taxes when divided by 6 vs 2.
I do think we need to go back to a simpler life. Generations living together. Grandparents can be the daycare, the food shoppers, cooks for the adult children of the Grandparents that work and support the family.
Just like the Waltons.
Then he should have been willing to live by his own advice, and taken losses on the stocks that they purchased. Owning stocks should be risky. Most of those banks would have failed and the stocks gone to zero without trillion$ in gov support.
Ignorant Munger lovers all rushing to his defense. LOL. Munger was wrong. If there is going to be a bailout, it has to go to everyone equally. And bailing out homeowners just a little would have been cheaper, more effective, and a better fix than bailing out the bankers. Do you understand the multiplier effect on all those derivatives that REALLY crashed the system when you fix a few bad mortgages? Nope. Munger is just a crazy coot with little understanding of modern finance. He rode the Reagan printing press wave like everyone else. Now he wants permanent bank welfare because that is something he knows he needs.
well yeah if ur talking gaussian copula and other efficient market hocus pocus mumbo jumbo yeah Munger is a cave man coz he aint lining his pocket with co-location algorithmic theory and gee whiz crap, nor does he read Wilmot
But if ur talking risk analysis and making solid money well hez robin and warren is batman :-)). check out their reinsurance stuff if u r keen on understanding risk :-)
Good thing they got 95B in bailouts to supplement their awesome risk management skills.
Bro the 95B was a sum assured in case of the contingency of failure and that is different from sum given. A simple example if i have a million dollar insurance, it doess't make me a millionaire. if I pop it my chick might become one .
Plus check the yellow column it is around $7b of sum assured to BRK
in addition Berkshire spent close to $20-25 billion buying and lending money yes at good interest rates to other firms . So it was a net supplier of actual capital of about $15 b and that is including sum assured as an actual advance
BS if the TBTF weren't given the money they wouldn't have had to pay it back, remember when Goldman paid back the 10 billion.
Sugarcoat it however you want. Warren, Munger and BRK got bailed out and benefited from the bailouts of others. Without the bailouts, Warren and Munger would be living in dumpsters on the street somewhere right now--The way the peope he is teling to suck it up will have to because of their mistakes.
That contingency backstop, as you seem to believe it was, was real drawable money to continue to the confidence game. Even if they never used it (LOL, you know they would never admit to it) it was there for them. And be serious. You have no idea what they really got or what they continue to get at tax payer expense.
boy you sure are Moody today.
I doubt Munger is trying to convince Americans.
He is trying to convince himself.
agreed
suck it in and cope.....let them eat cake....I wonder if Mr. Munger's knowledge of Marie Antoinette is limited to Sophia Coupola's epinonymous' Tour de Force:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLFgC3QahDc
(Psss, Charlie....She dies in the end)
Look, lets face it almost all people live beyond their means. We all bitch and moan because we really do not want to go back to the basics. A simple home, not a grand Mc mansion. Cooking our food from scratch. Not from the frozen food isle. But to really peal potatoes. Just checked an add from one of the stores I shop. Potatoes for $1.99 for 5 pounds. You can make a lot of meals from 5 pound of potatoes. Carrots $1. per pound. 18 eggs for $1.50.
No frozen food, no carry out, no ordering in. No new car. Buy a used car. No cell phone, except a prepaid phone. Give up that internet phone.
Really, Americans are spoiled. They spend money they do not have just to make their life easier. I hate to say it but in a way I think he is right.
Do not work so hard. The more you work the more you have to pay to the Government. Make life simple. Work less and pay less.
LOL OK so the average American that took too much risk should get it in the ass AND have to listen to some douchebag billionaire who benefited from a govt bailout to "suck it up" while Charlie and Buffett get to make billions from taking too much risk? Sorry but you deserve the same fate all of these asshole bankers deserve
But if you made life simple, then there would be no "growth" and then Charlie and Warren would have to tighten their belts (suck it in), and we can't have that.
If either of them had an ounce of respect for the country that made them, they would not have "outsourced" American jobs.
We've been in a death spiral for some 2 years (living on borrowed time and money for a decade or a generation) and the only hope these dinosaurs have is if the Chinese Middle Class is born. I don't think so.
The Chinese Communist Fascists have revived the Mandarin Class (both public and private) and the Slave Class (from the farms to the factories).
Middle Class means voters and that's not going to happen. Hell, the self-appointed elite in this country would love to dispense with the nuisance of allowing the little people to vote.
Oops my mistake I came thinking this is insight club, well this really is fight club
all the best folks, just friendly advice wanna get rich read up on Charlie and Warren.
Yea I agree sucking up is rude to say but one Grandpa Charlie is grumpy and the other one is the teddy
Thanks and bbye
Gotta sleeeeeep
Lord Blankfein is that you?
To vi2010
I think the size of Berkshire limits them to the speed limit of the growth of the economy, long term. They are just too big.
And ponder The Innovator's Dilemma- that you fail by doing what has made you successful.
Just food for thought.
This is a real simple issue.
If Charlie and Warren had debt/equity in Bank A, and Bank A ended up making colossal mistakes in managing its risks-- then as holders of that security, Charlie and Warren should have lost a boatload of money.
It didn't work out that way-- and the rationale is that if it did, the U.S. would be living in a hellhole. I don't buy Munger's rationale for a second, though its convenient -- and certainly more profitable-- for him to cling to that belief. Whatever.
The reality is , there were certainly other options on the table, such as receiverhip, liquidations, converting bond to equity holders and diluting the equity base to where the stock may never see $2 per share. That's the risk that bondholders and equityholders take-- unless the goverment intervenes with non market based solutions.
Painful? You bet. Really painful, like shrinking the banking sector in half painful.
Catastrophic? Prove it. There's a multitude of ways the U.S. government cold have moved TBTFs through the insolvency process. And there were a multitude of ways the goernement could have applied bailout money that didn't involve saving bondholders and equity holders skin at all costs. Instead the goverment embraced a solution that was quick, easy... and chock full of moral hazard. Incredibly, it didn't end there, as current Fed policy clearly illustrates.
No one is saying Charlie and Warren don't play a good game. They do. But those comments this morning were about as hypocritical as they could get. These guys could have lost the sweaters over their shirts-- but kept their shirts-- if the market played out in Darwinian fashion. Instead, they have a full wardobe of clothing, thanks to the windfalls of goverment intervention.
It nice to know we all just need to suck it up, though.
munger is correct in his assessment. sucking it in is going to be required. true also that for a guy of 86 he's not exactly a smooth operator anymore. truer still is that his recent comments re: banks and leverage were equally bashing of banks and current management of a great many institutions.
remembering as well that all BRKA/B did was make the most of a terrible situation, which is specifically their job that they must do for shareholders. they can no more change the course of history than anyone else, and true enough, they aren't immune from markets, but they can understand the nature of things, and make money from that erudite knowledge.
we're going through a depressionary phase, and we remain the best-of-the-worst. sucking it in--- hard as it remains to be... is the correct answer.
letting long rates rise to 10% and short rates drift to 4-5% and further allowing state and local governments to fail would pull more from the economy than it would add back in productive trade and industry, and the global and political / military risk would probably be too great.
the now-normal demonstrates that in "not" choosing the depressionary approach and instead the G-20 getting together and trying to relflate their economies respectively--- and doing the taxes in a way that allows not too much inflation between any of these related countries. thats the new normal. shawn a. mesaros pamria, llc pacific asset management
Pam, you are joking? extending this insolvency of banks for years is the answer you post?
Munger and Co have exploited their crony capitalist crimes for years and you come to praise them?
the sickness of our leaders and global corp ghouls has come to light via mr munger
Pacific Asset Management - you're one of the parasites too. Living off rents, producing nothing, enriching yourself.
You'll hang with the rest.
The elites are really disappointed in the average American..Munger and Buffett can barely cope with the average Joe's selfishness..how dare they complain about TARP or Mega Bank bail outs, and the biggest Government debt in History ,How Dare they!!
Why don't they see how much worse it would have been for us all (the elites) if we had let them fail. Why all those Unemployed Americans should be grateful to us (Munger et al)..
Revolution after monday night football I say..oh well, some people just need killin.
It truly is the age of rage
fighting all the time , in every season
for no rhyme and reason
using the flimsiest pretext to hang ...for treason
i thought i would like this place
better i keep out of this crazy race
valueinvestor2020
With ear on ground to hear the sage, pontificating page by page,
with witticisms small and large, wrapped in enough bullshit to fill a barge.
If you don't like bare knuckles, then it is best you go back to tea and crumpets.
However, I for one, though I did not agree with your description of Cherry Coke and Distant Thunder, thought you added a counterbalance.
Once you've tasted your own blood, then you will get it.
Cheers
ps I always thought Warren didn't give sufficient credit to Ben
pps Take a "junk" with pride. Only the racists and assholes do I junk.
Sorry but the raping of the middle class and pissing on the consitution by the banksters and their politicians that are bought and paid for hardly constitutes a flimsy pretext.
Interesting that Munger tells Americans to just "suck it in and cope", but he thought Buffet bailouts were a matter of national survival! This is elitist entitlement personified!
What an asshole
So if Charlie Munger has a stroke and spends the next 20 years staring at the bedroom wall paralised, and his male nurse is an ex-pervert priest, we can just tell him, suck it in and cope.
It is about what these selfish ignorant privilidged types deserve. Not the slightest bit of sympathy for the 'not haves'. Nor shall he receive sympathy when the devil is shoving burning coals up is arse every hour.
Paging Michael H. Kenyan.
Meanwhile the University of Michigan students, the smartypant hopes of tomorrow, just sat there with mouths agape, nodding 'uh huh, yes suh mistah mungah. We be suckin suh, we be copin suh'.
Not surprising, these guys are low lifes and they are proving it. They both bascially support abortion all the way up to and including infanticide IMO. My theory is they would rather people abort their kids and spend all their money in the economy rather than save money for family formation. Single/ married people with no kids are the most profligate spenders, generally. It's one thing politically to support abortion, quite another to leave millions, if not billions in 'charity' for no other purpose than the destruction of human fetuses. I'm sure Buffett would be a huge bull on for profit abortion, if it existed.
Yea, both him and Buffet are prisoners of their investments. Its in their best interest to protect the major banks, because if they didn't they would have lost everything. So the "suck it in and cope." isn't for them, but for us. Because if they had to do that they would be jumping out the windows literally.
Munger and Gramm need to be checked into the same nursing home...where they can bloviate all over each other.
YAQ
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/09/yet-another-quack.html