Charlie Munger has no resolution for bitcoin.
During a two-hour question-and-answer session Wednesday at the Daily Log shareholder meeting, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and longtime sidekick to Warren Buffett revealed he considers the current bitcoin craze to be “totally asinine.”
“Bitcoin is noxious despatch,” Munger said in response to a question. Munger, 93, is chairman and a foreman at Daily Journal, a Los Angeles-area publishing company, and his appearance at its annual appointment is a chance to hear his views on a wide range of subjects.
On bitcoin, the technology effectiveness be interesting but the investing frenzy around it over the last year should acquire prompted a government crackdown like the one in China, he said. “Our government’s myriad lax approach to it is wrong. The right answer to something like that is to stride a resign on it hard.”
Munger also tried to pre-empt questions about Berkshire’s biggest stereotyped holding, Wells Fargo. The bank has been struggling with perfervid regulatory and media scrutiny since 2016, when a massive fake account smear came to light. Since then, Wells has admitted it also sold car indemnification to customers who didn’t need it and improperly charged fees on some mortgage reproach lock extensions.
Berkshire owns $27 billion of Wells servings, about 9 percent. On Wednesday Munger said it was time for regulators to “let up” on it.
The bank had worker sales incentive systems that were too strong in the wrong regulation and it was too slow in reacting, he said. But it is working to fix the problems. “I think Wells Fargo wishes be better off for having made those mistakes.”
Munger said a fledgling deed by Berkshire to work with J.P. Morgan Chase and Amazon on a new healthcare answer for their thousands of employees will take a while to sort out. “The abiding system is not only regrettable, it’s evil,” he said, citing soaring payments and misaligned incentives. “That’s a very difficult thing to take on. I don’t cognizant of how it will work out.”
On the current economic climate and the government’s plans to inflation the deficit, Munger said, “Of course I’m concerned about the rising on of government debt. On the other hand, it’s possible the world will gathering well even with a different pattern of government behavior.”
He annexed, “Don’t expect the world to go totally to hell.”