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Charlie Munger had nothing but nice things to say about Elon Musk — and nothing but bad things to say about bitcoin, and he acknowledged that he had “mellowed” on Donald Trump. Munger also said he was “glad” we had a trade deficit with China.
I interviewed the outspoken Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman a day after the company’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Musk “swings for the fences”
Only hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk trolled Berkshire Hathaway on Twitter (see below), Munger, Warren Buffett’s longtime partner, called Musk “bold and brilliant,” though Munger conceded that he had no idea if Musk’s endeavors would succeed.
Regarding Tesla, Munger said, “It’s already created more significance than anybody had predicted. Its founder is bold and brilliant, and he swings for the fences. People like that get some remarkable results. Sometimes they get some quick failures. I haven’t the faintest idea how Elon Musk will turn out, but he has a considerable chance of success and considerable chance of failure. He seems to like it that way.”
Munger said he hadn’t heard that Musk had tweeted that he was going to start a candy company in response to Buffett’s comment, “I don’t think he’d [Musk] want to take us on in candy.”
“I didn’t hear that. Sounds like wise-assery,” Munger chuckled. “I can’t criticize anybody else for wise-assery.”
(This all followed conflicting statements by Buffett and Musk over a number of months on the efficacy and definition of “moats” in business. At the Berkshire meeting, Buffett suggested that See’s Candies has a competitive advantage, or moat.)
Berkshire in China?
On tariffs, Munger replied, “I wouldn’t want the entire U.S. steel industry to move off-shore. [But] I have an attitude that’s entirely different from our president’s. I’m glad we have a big trade deficit with China,” he said. “It enabled them to get out of poverty and obscurity. I welcome the Chinese to the group of advanced nations. I like what’s happened.”
As for Berkshire investing in China, Munger said, “I don’t think it’s likely we will buy some great Chinese companies. I think what is likely is that we will be invited to buy part of some great Chinese company, because they like the good company.”
Bitcoin is a “combination of dementia and immorality”
I asked Munger if we should dismiss bitcoin completely — and he savaged the cryptocurrency even more.
“The computer science behind bitcoin is a great triumph of the human mind,” Munger started. “They created a product that’s hard to create more of but not impossible. [But] I see an artificial speculative medium,” he said, in which people can sell it to someone else at a higher value with no intrinsic value behind it. It’s “anti-social, stupid and immoral,” he said.