Charlie Munger on Crypto, Musk, Tesla, Alibaba, AI, Buffett, Berkshire

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Charlie Munger trashed the crypto, called Elon Musk brilliant but weird, and touted his BYD bet. Warren Buffett’s right-hand man also lamented his bet on Alibaba and questioned the potential of AI. The 99-year-old investor joked that his longevity was due to him eating See candy and never exercising. LoadingSomething is being loaded.

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Charlie Munger eviscerated cryptocurrencies, called Elon Musk an exceptional but odd individual, and touted Chinese automaker and Tesla rival BYD as one of his best investments ever.

The billionaire investor and vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway answered dozens of questions on a wide range of topics at the Daily Journal’s annual meeting on Wednesday, which was broadcast live by CNBC.

Munger lamented the Alibaba stock purchase and questioned the artificial intelligence boom sparked by the release of ChatGPT. Additionally, he joked that snacking on See candy and never exercising was the key to reaching his middle age of 99.

Here are Munger’s 16 best quotes, slightly edited for length and clarity:

1. “It’s silly, it’s massively stupid, and of course it’s very dangerous, and the governments were totally wrong to allow it. I’m not proud of my country for allowing this shit, what I call the ‘cryptocrappo’ or ‘cryptoshit.’ It’s worthless, it’s useless, it’s crazy, it will only hurt, and it’s antisocial to allow it.”

2. “It’s just indescribable, it’s absolute horror, and I’m ashamed of my country that so many people believe this kind of crap and that the government is allowing it to happen. It’s totally, absolutely, a stupid gambling game with huge house odds for people on the other side.” (Munger was referring to crypto.)

3. “My policy towards Elon Musk is that he is a very talented but also special man, so I don’t buy him and I don’t sell him short. I just say, ‘Well , he’s a very unusual person.”

4. “BYD is so far ahead of Tesla in China it’s almost ridiculous.” (Munger noted that BYD raised prices for its cars in China last year while Tesla cut prices, and touted the automaker’s strong domestic profits and manufacturing capacity.)

5. “I’ve never helped make anything at Berkshire as good as BYD.” (Munger convinced Buffett to invest $232 million for a stake that has increased in value more than 30 times in 15 years.)

6. “We made a better investment, you know what that was? We paid an executive recruiter to find us an employee and he suggested Ajit Jain. we paid the recruiting executive who was our best investment at Berkshire.” (Jain is the boss of Berkshire’s insurance operations.)

7. “Greg is simply sensational as a business leader, both as a thinker and as a doer. He’s also a tremendous learning machine, you can tell he’s as good as Warren to learn all kinds of things. There are some things he’s better than Warren, and Warren knows that, and he just keeps pouring on Greg whatever Greg can do better, and that’s a lot (Munger was referencing to Greg Abel, Buffett’s intended successor).

8. Jack Ma stood up and gave a public speech where he basically said, “The Communist Party is full of bullshit, they don’t know their ass by their elbow, they’re no good, and I’m smart. ” Pretty soon, he just disappeared from sight for months. It was pretty stupid, it’s like poking a bear’s nose with a sharp stick. He walked out of line by standing out like he did with the Chinese government.”

9. “I consider Alibaba to be one of the worst mistakes I have ever made. I was charmed by the idea of ​​their position on the Chinese internet; I kept realizing that they are still a fucking retailer. It’s going to be a competitive business, the internet won’t be a walk in the park for everyone.” (Munger added shares of Alibaba to the Daily Journal’s equity portfolio in early 2021.)

10. “Coca-Cola was run for years by a man with a very severe mental disability, and the directors just assumed he was drunk and let him sit there year after year. That’s my idea. ‘a wonderful company that you can be mentally deficient in and run it pretty well in. It was Coca-Cola in its heyday.

11. “As long as Costco keeps the faith with its strong culture and extremely low margin policy, I see nothing stopping it. The problem with Costco is that its stock trades at 40 times earnings, but other than that, It’s a perfect It’s got a wonderful future and it’s got a wonderful culture and it’s run by great people I love everything about Costco I’m a total junkie and I’ll never sell a share.

12. “All factors considered, and with Berkshire buying its own shares at a reasonable price, I think Berkshire is a very good bet for shareholders to hold for the long term. Everyone who bought Berkshire and owned it for 20 years have done well. I think that will be true for those who buy it at the current price.”

13. “Artificial intelligence is very important, but there is also a lot of hype about it. AI is not going to cure cancer, it is not going to do everything we want to do, and there is also a lot of nonsense in there. So I consider that a mixed blessing.” (Munger said AI might be helpful in underwriting insurance, but not much help in buying an office building.)

14. “I’ve avoided movies like a bane as an investor all my life. I’ve never made an investment in a movie business in any way, form, matter, or form. I don’t I don’t like unions, I don’t like I don’t like crazy agents, I don’t like crazy fucking lawyers, I don’t like crazy movie stars, I don’t like people who sell drugs to musicians, that’s not my culture. not my scene so I avoided it.”

15. “95% of people who are American professional asset managers, I wouldn’t want to work for me, investing is so hard. I think you have to be in the top 5% to have a reasonable chance.” (Munger was pointing out the difficulty of beating the market.)

16. “I hate to advertise my own product, but it’s the key to longevity. I’ve done almost no exercise on purpose in my life. exercise at all.” (He was referring to a box from See’s Candies, a Berkshire-owned company.)

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