Charlie Munger Quotes
Fancy computers are engaging in legalized front-running. The profits are clearly coming from the rest of us - our college endowments and our pensions. Why is this legal? What the hell is the government thinking? It's like letting rats into a restaurant.
Griffin, Tren. Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor. Columbia University Press, 2015.
The States sold bonds to finance the Revolutionary War. Some states had better prospects for redeeming their bonds than others. Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina in particular had poorer prospects than most and their bonds were selling at about 25 cents on the dollar. Alexander Hamilton, then the Secretary of the Treasury, wanted the new Federal government to assume the state’s war debt and pay off the bonds. He made his proposal for how he would accomplish this on January 14, 1790. He delivered his report and proposal to Congress “Report on the Public Credit”. As soon as Hamilton’s proposal was read in Congress, sophisticated speculators set off for the Southern States to buy up as many bonds as they could before the owners found out that a Federal bail-out was under serious consideration. They could easily double, triple or even quadruple their money. To Jackson this was gross immorality. Other representatives had a different point of view. See {619928} & {619939}.
At this time it was 6 years after the Home Financing Crisis and the Meltdown of 2008 and despite tens of thousands of law violations by the bank, the Justice Department was finally finishing their investigations and requiring some penalties. Other negotiations with other banks were in progress, but no bank executives were going to jail for the millions they handled fraudulently, whereas a burglar who stole household goods would do jail time.
The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau was established over much Conservative opposition in the reforms that were established in the wake of the Meltdown of 2008 and the Great Recession. And the Republican Party was critical of everything that it did. The issue of whether or not the Federal government should even have a role in consumer protection was been debated for over a century. This quotation is very ironic in that the first major federal legislation to assist American consumers was pushed though by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt. Over 100 years later, it was the Republican Party that fought to weaken or eliminate Federal efforts. Ryan, the Republican legislative leader, led the effort. Ironically, most businesses agreed with him about the micromanagement as it was they who had to change their modes of operation to comply with CFPB regulation, but the vast majority of consumers did not feel that they were being micromanaged although many agreed that the companies interacting with consumers were certainly being managed much more tightly.
Charles Thomas Munger is an American billionaire investor, businessman, former real estate attorney, architectural designer, and philanthropist. He is vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett; Buffett has described Munger as his closest partner and right hand man. Munger served as chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation from 1984 through 2011. He is also chairman of the Daily Journal Corporation, based in Los Angeles, California, and a director of Costco Wholesale Corporation.
