Historical Figure
Charlie Munger
d. 2023
American businessman (1924–2023)
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Biography
Charles Thomas Munger was an American businessman, investor, attorney and philanthropist. He was the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett, from 1978 until his death in 2023. Buffett described Munger as his closest partner and right-hand man, and credited him with being the "architect" of modern Berkshire Hathaway's business philosophy.
In Their Own Words (5)
... much of what is taught in modern corporate finance courses is twaddle.
1996 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, YouTube video with quote at 2:41:46 of 4:54:01 in video , 1996
I don't think that she knows who Adam Smith was.
Charlie Munger on Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (May 9, 2019) , 2019
I see [Bitcoin as] an artificial speculative medium that people are buying just because they think they can sell it to somebody else at a higher price, even though it inherently has no intrinsic value. So, I regard the whole business as anti-social, stupid, immoral. [...] I regard the thing as a combination of dementia and immorality, and I think the people that are pushing it are a disgrace.
Yahoo Finance interview with Andrew Serwer, May 7, 2018 (at 17:00) , 2018
You have to learn all the big ideas in the key disciplines in a way that they're in a mental latticework in your head and you automatically use them for the rest of your life. If you do that, I solemnly promise you that one day you'll be walking down the street and you'll look to your right and left and you’ll think "my heavenly days, I'm now one of the few competent people in my whole age cohort." If you don't do it, many of the brightest of you will live in the middle ranks or in the shallows.
USC Law School Commencement Speech (2007-05-13) , 2007
Our investment style has been given a name - focus investing - which implies ten holdings, not one hundred or four hundred. The idea that it is hard to find good investments, so concentrate in a few, seems to me to be an obvious idea. But 98% of the investment world does not think this way. It's been good for us.
Poor Charlie's Almanack, p. 100 (1st edition, 2005; 2nd edition, 2008) , 2005
Timeline
The story of Charlie Munger, told in moments.
Dropped out of the University of Michigan at 19 to serve in the Army Air Corps. Later attended Harvard Law School without a bachelor's degree after a former dean intervened on his behalf.
His eight-year-old son Teddy died of leukemia. His first marriage dissolved the same year. "I was wiped out," he later said.
Became vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett credited Munger with shifting the company from buying cheap businesses to buying great ones at fair prices. "Charlie shoved me in the direction of not just buying bargains."
Died at a hospital in Santa Barbara, 33 days short of his 100th birthday. His net worth was roughly $2.6 billion. He'd spent decades giving most of it away.
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