Charlie Munger
Former Vice Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway · 1 appearance on the record.
computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →
investorexecutiveauthorberkshirehathaway.com ↗
Munger was Warren Buffett's longtime business partner and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, where he helped shape its investment strategy. He also served as chairman of Daily Journal Corporation, sat on Costco's board, and authored Poor Charlie's Almanack.
50statements → 14claims → 7claims resolved → 57%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 2.56/5average debate potential → 189said about them ↓
4 supported 2 partly supported 1 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 6 not checkable as stated how the 14 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
1 prediction · 13 assertions · 18 opinions · 9 insights · 6 disclosures · 3 what ifs · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 14 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 7 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Charlie argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Berkshire borrowed Japanese yen at 0.5% to buy 5%-yielding trading houses
“The interest rates in Japan were half a percent per year for 10 years. And these trading companies were really entrenched old companies, and they had all these cheap copper mines and rubber plantations, and so you could borrow for 10 years ahead all the money,…”
Expressed certainty vs assessment result
weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Charlie Munger on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Charlie Munger said on Acquired that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Munger says top venture capital earners are trend-chasers, not great investors
“The people who made the most money out of venture capital are a lot like investment bankers deciding which hot new area they're going to get in. They're not great investors or great at anything.”
Munger claims BYD founder Wang Chuanfu is better at manufacturing than Musk
“The guy at BYD is better at actually making things than Elon is.”
Munger says short-term gains should be taxed without any loss offsets
“If I were running the world, I would have a tax on short-term gains with no offset for losses on anything. And I would just drive this whole crowd every ball of business.”
Munger says consistently investing well in venture capital is nearly impossible
“It's very difficult to invest money well, and I think it's all but impossible to do time after time after time in venture capital.”
Munger claims most startup operators end up hating their venture capitalists
“By and large, having bumped into a lot of people in the businesses with venture capital financing, I would say the ordinary rule is that people in the business doing the work, they more or not, they hate the venture capitalists. They don't feel their partner t…”
Munger claims private fund managers enrich themselves while underdelivering to endowments
“The world is full of Goldman Sachs partners that formed a private fund, and they manage a billion dollars or something like that, and they charge two points off the top plus this, and that enables them to make very handsome livings themselves, but the endowmen…”
Munger admits he and Warren Buffett could not rebuild Berkshire today
“The answer to that is no, we wouldn't.”
Munger claims China's economy has better 20-year prospects than most
“Well, my position in China has been Well, that the Chinese economy has better future prospects over the next 20 years than almost any other big economy.”
Costco delayed its China entry for decades after refusing a $30,000 bribe
“The first store they tried to open in China, the first store somebody wanted a 30,000 dollar bribe. You know, Chinese culture. And they just wouldn't pay it. And that made such a bad impression on Jim Senegal. He wouldn't even talk to him going into China for …”
Munger claims excluding depreciation from earnings via EBITDA is lying about profits
“You got a big truck company and Take the depreciation out of the trucks, out of the earnings. You're ever lying about the earnings.”
Munger calls John Malone a great manipulator who avoided paying income taxes
“Well, I've never liked John Malone's extreme manipulations. I don't want to be known as the great manipulator like John Malone is. He paid less income taxes than anybody.”
Munger says business forecasting fails when CEOs like Bob Iger prioritize PR
“Well, I think a lot of companies are pretty good, but you can't confidently say what's going to happen because you may get some guy like Iger in that just wants to push everything and do the right public relations. So no matter how good the business is, it'll …”
Munger claims quant firms achieve high returns through increasingly massive leverage
“And the way they get their returns year after year is taking the leverage, the midday leverage up higher and higher and higher and higher. So they're making smaller and smaller profits on more and more volume, which gives them this big peak leverage risk, whic…”
Munger says investors must bet heavily on their best ideas
“When you know you have an edge, you should bet heavily. You know you're right. And most people, they don't teach that in business school. It's insane. Of course, you got to bet heavily on your best bets.”
Munger says Berkshire Hathaway would be 3x larger with slightly more leverage
“If we used a little bit more leverage throughout, we'd have three times as much now. And it wouldn't have been that much more risk either.”
Endowments across America are slashing effective private fund fees by 50%
“The endowments have started to say to the, all these people that charged three and 30 or whatever they charge, they said, we'll pay your three and 30, but we're going to put in twice as much money, and then the next half you'll get nothing on it, or you're jus…”
Munger says Walmart made a terrible mistake letting Costco win wealthy suburbs
“So it offended them to go against the rich suburbs and to have to pay up for the good locations, and Costco just specialized in the good locations where the rich people live. And Walmart just let them do it year after year. It was a terrible mistake.”
Munger says operating with personal wealth beats managing outside capital
“Once I had enough money on my own, I'd rather just operate with my own money. That is a much better way of doing it.”
Munger reveals he does not carry fire insurance on any properties
“I carry no fire insurance anywhere.”
Investors need significant participation in a few top market leaders
“What everybody has learned is that everybody needs some significant participation in the 12 companies that do better than everybody else. And you need two or three of them at least.”
Munger reveals he holds roughly 18% China risk in his family portfolio
“So naturally, I'm willing to have some China risk in the Munger portfolio. How much China risk? Well, that's not a scientific subject, but I don't mind whatever it is, 18% or something, whatever, whatever's worked out in the Munger family, it's okay with me.”
Munger believes nearly all investment assets worldwide have become overpriced
“Damn near. Of course it could be possible. It's not only possible, it's likely, and it's actually happened.”
The other half of the tape: Charlie Munger's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 182 times in 30 episodes on Acquired. 7 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most David Senra 75David Rosenthal 54Ben Gilbert 35Steve Ballmer 5Howard Marks 5Michael Lewis 2Jim Weber 2Brinton Johns 2
Statements about Charlie Munger, by other people (7)
Munger: Wealthy Parents Must Inherit Wealth or Children Will Hate Them
“And he's like, he definitely feels that some of them are going to be less motivated because they're born rich, but he said this was the most surprising thing. But he goes, you have to give them the money anyways or they're going to hate you for it.”
BYD's Founder Succeeded by Ignoring Munger and Li Lu's EV Advice
“That Charlie and Li Lu Lu Li Li Lu gave the founder advice and he ignored it. And he was right. He's like, don't go in electric cars or whatever it was that he did.”
Gilbert: Munger and Huang were Acquired's biggest episodes ever
“Charlie and Margaret was by far our biggest episode ever. Jensen was bigger than any previous season episode. Dara and Daniel were right around the ballpark of what our season episodes were doing at that point in time when we had interviewed them.”
Senra: Munger approaches inevitable life problems with complete indifference
“Charlie has an almost complete indifference to problems. Troubles from time to time should be expected. This is inescapable, so why would you let it bother you?”
Charlie Munger Turned One Barron's Idea Into $400 Million With Li Lu
“He's like, I read Barron's every all the time for 50 years. I found one idea that I can act on. I made fifty million dollars on that deal, and then I took that fifty million and I gave it to Lee Lu. Is that the? Oh, yeah, yeah. In Seattle. I gave that fifty mi…”
Senra: Buffett and Munger Spent Up to Eight Months per Berkshire Letter
“How much time they spend on those letters. It's like half a year, seven, eight months for every letter.”
Senra: Charlie Munger recommends reading Les Schwab's autobiography on incentives
“Charlie Munger says you should read, if you want to learn about incentives in a really difficult business, read Les Schwab's autobiography, which I did because Charlie told me to, did it like episode a long time ago.”
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Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Charlie Munger (Audio) · Acquired | Oct 30, 2023 | 30m |