By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
Setting his eyes forward, Munger forecasted that powerful tech firms like Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft would retain their status as leaders in the industry.
Charlie Munger, popularly known for his association with business magnate Warren Buffett, as complained about growing tension between the United States and China on Wednesday, January 16. Attending a Q&A session organized by the Daily Journal annual meeting in L.A, the American investor also gave his opinion about the crypto industry describing it as a venereal disease that needs to be banned.
On the question of Chinese political pressure, Munger lamented that there wasn’t any justification for the continued deteriorating relationship between the two superpowers and that the differences in government systems or performance scores don’t suffice. According to Munger, peaceful coexistence between the US and China would be good for everyone.
Munger on Crypto
Following the same vein, the businessman also lamented about crypto saying that it should have been outlawed from the very beginning. Munger, who has no investment ties to crypto, likened it to some viral S.T.I.
Regarding it as “beneath contempt”, Munger fails to understand why certain people perceive crypto as being progressive, when, to him, crypto is clearly a currency only good for crimes like extortion, tax evasion, and kidnapping.
In 2018, Warren Buffett also shared his dislike for cryptocurrency, terming it “rat poison squared”. Like his boss, Munger has also frequently expressed his disdain for crypto and believes that “an old guy is entitled to invest wherever it is he pleases”.
There is also a record of a previous incident during an interview in May 2021 when Munger vocalized his own dislike for BTC. Per his statement, “Of course I Hate the BTC success and neither do I like just shuffling out a few extra billions and billions and billions of dollars to somebody who just invented a new financial product out of thin air.”
Munger lauds the Chinese Government for banning the space and wishes the United States would follow suit.
Munger Predicts the Future
Setting his eyes forward, Munger forecasted that powerful tech firms like Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, and Microsoft Corp would retain their status as leaders in the industry.
According to Munger, the conglomerates have no substitutes. He added that half a century ago he thought newspapers wouldn’t be displaced but the rise of technology and new media has made most of them obsolete.
However, regardless of this, the current media is no substitute for “Walter Cronkite and all those great newspapers of yesteryears.”
Munger has served in the Vice Chairman capacity for Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc for the past 44 years with a successful track record of leading the conglomerate’s investment in electric car manufacturer BYD Co. Just recently, he was able to double Daily Journal’s stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.