Charlie Munger Interview

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Hoplite
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Post by Hoplite »

A BBC interview with Charlie Munger. Interesting perspective on idiot booms and Wall Street's locker room mentality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WkpQ4PpId4


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jennypenny
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Post by jennypenny »

I love listening to Buffet and Munger. One of the things I like about Munger in particular is that he pauses to think about what he's going to say. He searches for the right word instead of just throwing out a bunch hoping that one of them says what he means.
@9:45 "I think the very decentralization of Berkshire, and the extreme pockets of talent in all of the subsidiaries, will give Berkshire a very respectable future long after we're gone."
Seems like this would be applicable on a personal level as well.


Chad
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Post by Chad »

I always like how calm they are.
Also, Buffett & Munger never over pay for senior executives. There are no giant golden parachutes or CEOs making $50M a year in any company Berkshire owns. Yet, they still get talent at that position. I don't think there is such a thing as a CEO worth $50M. If they were so skilled they would have started their own company and been a Gates, Jobs, Dell, Ford, Carnegie, etc.
On a Buffett side note we are a only a couple years from the end of Buffett's sideways market prediction.


ktn
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Post by ktn »

"On a Buffett side note we are a only a couple years from the end of Buffett's sideways market prediction."
@Chad, do you have a link on this? Googling for it came up empty. I am interested in knowing what this Buffet prediction exactly is. Thanks.


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jennypenny
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Post by jennypenny »

@ktn-I think it was in the annual letter. I heard him reaffirm it recently. Maybe on his Charlie Rose appearance?


Chad
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Post by Chad »

@ktn

I might be able to find a link, but i don't have time right now as its buried in a really old article (maybe even the annual report). Some time in the late 90's or very early 2000's he suggested that we had roughly a decade & a half of sideways markets to look forward to. Obviously, this isn't a precise prediction, but if the politicians act even moderately sane & we see continued growth after this current minor recession we may begin to see a real recovery and not just a credit recovery.
As, Jenny suggests he has kept with this theme, though he never references that old prediction. He usually only says he sees America's prospects improving over the next few years or something like that. Which is different than what he said mid-decade.
Also, and I need to check this, but I think it coincides nicely with the current Kongratieff Wave.


Hoplite
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Post by Hoplite »

"I always like how calm they are."
I do too, but it's disturbing that this quality actually stands out in all the hysteria.
I remember the Buffet prediction of a long sideways market with below 7% total market returns, but I heard it in a brief interview years ago. I remember him also saying that the best thing for airline investors would be that the Wright Brothers had crashed and died.


Chad
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Post by Chad »

It could have been an interview, as it was a long time ago.
The hysteria is disturbing, but not surprising...extroverts run the country.


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jennypenny
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Re: Charlie Munger Interview

Post by jennypenny »

Recent talk by Charlie Munger. Meat of the talk starts around the 30-minute mark. https://youtu.be/BLctqhNClqY

I liked his comment about killing bad ideas. I also found the discussion of polymaths and his opinion that most people should probably specialize interesting. It seems similar to ERE -- specialize in something lucrative while giving yourself time to despecialize.

ETA: I forgot to mention the 'make friends with dead people' comment. In my experience, the most successful people (defining that broadly) are the people who read voraciously.

Dragline
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Re: Charlie Munger Interview

Post by Dragline »

I like how he talked about changing directions from past "entrenched views" when he was discussing the new investments in airlines, aapl and xom.

ebast
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Re: Charlie Munger Interview

Post by ebast »

that continues a trend in which Charlie provides more substantive detail on equity investments than the big cheese ever does. (I also get the continuing sense Charlie is a little more hedged in opinion over some of the recent ones.) I suppose I do like hearing him say it's harder than in the old days.

I like Charlie and have read much of what he's put down in words, but afterward I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that I overall I preferred the boring Daily Journal questions - it's interesting how this and the BRK meeting is gradually shifting composition from investor nerds hashing over discount rates and goodwill valuation to open-season free-for-alls in stock Tim Ferriss questions or variations on asking a complete, if affable, stranger who won't remember even looking at you through the coke-bottle glasses he can't see through to guess at the last three words in your question he can't hear... what you should do in your life.

Perhaps the local micro-economy is deficient in providing adequate advice-givers in these troubled times, but I wonder if asking your third-grade teacher wouldn't be more insightful.

another reason to make your billions in secret.

Jason

Re: Charlie Munger Interview

Post by Jason »

I always thought Charlie Munger to be a condescending ahole, and in the "Becoming Buffet" documentary (in which he was featured), it was corroborated by others who know them both. He does not possess Warren Buffet's humility which appears to be genetic and thorough.

However, Munger is deferential to Buffet's genius and he was instrumental in moving Buffet away from his "old cigar" period i.e. extremely undervalued companies with one last toke in them into his Coca Cola/AMEX period of good companies with good profit periods. Buffet himself describes him as indispensable.

Munger is Paper Chase. Buffet is Dead Poets Society.

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jennypenny
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Re: Charlie Munger Interview

Post by jennypenny »

Another Munger interview from 2010 https://youtu.be/4gogHNnF5HI . Typical Munger. There's an index in the notes so you can jump ahead to what you want to hear. I've been compiling some videos for a relative to watch before I give them ERE to read. I used to give people ERE right off the bat, but I realize now that most people need a little prep work to make sure they're in the right frame of mind when they read it.

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