Charlie Munger has been the vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc since 1978.
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner, on Wednesday said that it is “stupid” for tensions to escalate between the United States and China, and that cryptocurrency in particular should be banned, calling it “” under contempt”.
Munger, 98, spoke while answering questions for nearly two hours at the annual meeting of the Daily Journal Corp, the Los Angeles newspaper publisher and software supplier to the courts he chairs.
He is better known as the vice chairman of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc since 1978.
Munger is a longtime powerhouse in China, spearheading Berkshire’s investment in electric car maker BYD Co and recently doubling the Daily Journal’s stake in e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. .
But when asked about political pressures from China, he said the recent deterioration in US-China relations is not due to their different systems of government or because one country does some things better than the other. .
“We wish that China and the United States got along better,” he said. “Think about how foolish both China and the United States are to let existing tensions mount…. They should like us and we should like them.”
He has shown zero tolerance for crypto, saying he wishes it had been banned in the first place.
“I’m proud of the fact that I’ve avoided it. It’s like some venereal disease,” Munger said.
“I just take it as contempt. Some people think it’s modernity and they welcome a currency that is very useful in extortion and kidnapping cases [and] not paying taxes.”
Munger also predicts that Berkshire’s holdings of Apple Inc, Google’s parent Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp will be “really strong” over the next 50 years.
He said half a century ago he was wrong, the same was true of newspapers, and lamented their being supplanted by media that told people on both sides of the political spectrum to only what they want to hear.
“This is no substitute for Walter Cronkite and all the great newspapers of the past year,” Munger said of the legendary CBS News host.
Berkshire sold its own newspaper portfolio in 2020 to Lee Enterprises Inc.
Yahoo Finance broadcast the Daily News meeting.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
