Becky Quick interviewed Charlie Munger on November 14, 2023 two weeks before his death on November 28. The interview was broadcast on CNBC tonight at 8:00 pm ET.
Five highlights were:
(1) BECKY QUICK: What was your worst trade?
CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, my worst trade was buying a block for the Munger family in Alibaba, which is a pretty good company. But I think it got over-hyped. And Jack Ma was – made mistakes in dealing with the Chinese government.
(2) CHARLIE MUNGER: The real money was in the really great companies, which carried you up, and up, and up, and up, and up. I did not anticipate when Warren and I were starting with our little, piddly start that we’d ever get to $100 million, much less several hundred billion.
(3) CHARLIE MUNGER: There’s an opportunity for a purchase a lot bigger than people can make who don’t have $160 billion. We have $160 billion in cash, plus a great credit rating we deserve. So we have – we need something big to come along, and use up all our cash, and some borrowing.
(4) CHARLIE MUNGER: Berkshire could easily be worth twice what it is now. And the extra risk we would’ve taken would’ve been practically nothing. All we had to do is just a little more leverage that was easily available. We were very cautious in dealing with our shareholders’ money.
(5) CHARLIE MUNGER: More than half of Munger money has already been passed to the descendants. The majority of his money he gave away. And now he didn’t exactly give it away. It goes to Buffett Foundations that go on for another 100 years.
Article by Dr. David Kass
