Charlie Munger Quotes

High interest rates are the cruelest taxes of all.

Prices of every thing depend on the proportion between commodities and money, and that any considerable alteration on either has the same effect, either of heightening or lowering the price.

The virtues of homeownership are so ingrained in the American psyche that we often forget that housing is also a source of economic stress. Rising milk prices are regarded as a household tragedy for some, and spiking gas prices stoke national outrage. But whenever home prices go up, it’s “a recovery,” even though that recovery also means millions of people can no longer afford to buy.

Inflation appears to affect the entire electorate, though in reality those able to increase their earnings at the same rate of inflation would not suffer unduly.

The so-called leading [economic] indicators no longer answer the most important questions people are raising about how they live.

Can that be true when America is billions in debt, when prices have doubled, when taxes break our backs and we are still fighting in Korea? It’s tragic and it’s time for a change.

There’s been an economic war going on in this country and the middle class and the poor have been losing..

I would be uncomfortable raising the federal funds rate if readings on wage growth, core consumer prices, and other indicators of underlying inflation pressures were to weaken, if market-based measures of inflation compensation were to fall appreciably further, or if survey-based measures were to begin to decline noticeably.

When monetary policy destroys the currency, it always destroys the middle class.

The history of the twentieth century - America's century! - has been pretty much a history of rising prices.

The rise in the price of gold is a sign that capitalism has stumbled.

It doesn't take a degree in economics to know that something is wrong when it takes $30 or $40 to fill up the gas tank.

Together, Apple and Walmart represent the intense separation of American life into blue and red, rich and poor, overpriced and undersold, hyperconnected and left behind.

The middle class today would be poor by the standards of the 1950s. Today, with two people working, they would still live paycheck to paycheck.

Our government is printing money, and it's degrading the living standard of every person in America. It's the cause of frustration, anger, and confusion.

Because food and energy prices are volatile, it is often helpful to look at inflation excluding those two categories - known as core inflation - which is typically a better indicator of future overall inflation than recent readings of headline inflation.

Research has shown that middle-income wage earners would benefit most from a large reduction in corporate tax rates. The corporate tax is not a rich-man's tax. Corporations don't even pay it. They just pass the tax on in terms of lower wages and benefits, higher consumer prices, and less stockholder value.

It's very difficult for the middle class in America to keep up because of the inflationary pressure and the devaluation of the dollar.

People concerned about inflation today tend to buy big houses and nice cars.

Working families spend about 90 percent of their income on consumption - buying stuff. The rich spend less than 45 percent.

I really resent how expensive everything is in London.

The entire political class and ruling Wall Street class are zero-percent-interest zombies who talk about 'deflation' in the value of their second, third, and fourth homes. This is paper-deflation, zombie-deflation, and has nothing to do with the real economy.

The average household income has really stagnated since 1971.

Members of the middle class do not have to worry about falling off $250,000 sailboats because they don't have $250,000 sailboats to fall off of.

A poor person in my community doesn't see a person driving a Tesla and say, 'That benefits me.'