Charlie Munger, Buffett's Business Partner: 'Thank God' For Bailouts

Bloomberg:

"You should thank God" for bank bailouts, Munger said in a discussion at the University of Michigan on Sept. 14, according to a video posted on the Internet. "Now, if you talk about bailouts for everybody else, there comes a place where if you just start bailing out all the individuals instead of telling them to adapt, the culture dies."

Read the whole story: Bloomberg

Comments

[leftLibertarian]

11:08 PM on 09/24/2010

off with his head

[thrashertm]

02:33 PM on 09/23/2010

Charlie, your ilk - corporatist parasites looting the public treasury - make me sick.

We help Americans find jobs and prosperity in Asia. Visit http://www.pathtoasia.com for details.

[TheAngryGrapes]

08:56 AM on 09/22/2010

Charlie is a great investor, but that does not make him a great economist or regulator. The FDIC should have taken over the banks they bailed out, wiped out shareholders, preferred shareholders and subordinated debt holders to the point where assets just barely exceeded liabilities. This would have wiped out deferred compensation for banks and managers as well as deferred compensation come in the form of stock. Then, the FDIC should have spun the banks out to the public markets to recapitalize the firms. All the right people would pay for their mistakes. Taxpayers would pay nothing. With the correct people paying the price, they would not make the same mistakes next time. There would be no need for the insane financial reform bill. The bailouts did nothing but take money from middle america and give it to high priced bankers. With the precedent set, banks have no incentive to reform voluntarily and run their institutions correctly.
http://www.TheAngryGrapes.com

[thrashertm]

02:34 PM on 09/23/2010

FDIC should be abolished. Let's remove the moral hazard from the system.

[breakingpoint]

01:20 AM on 09/22/2010

Munger ought to read the history of the French Revolution

[Lorianne]

09:00 PM on 09/21/2010

Munger's False Choice
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=167101

[Red Pinstripes]

01:40 PM on 09/21/2010

It amazes me how these things (I won't call them people) continue to loudly beat the class war drum. It's as if they're inviting an angry mob to storm their mansion. I hope they get it, it's long overdue.

[million]

10:05 AM on 09/21/2010

The one thing we desperately need is a culture change. Instead, we made too big to fail, too bigger to fail. We preserved a culture that benefits billionaires like Munger and greedy CEO's that helped cause this mess. That culture benefits no one else.

Yet Munger wants us to “suck it in and cope” and expect to be happy that he did not get wiped out.

You know what? It would have been a damn good thing if the culture died and assholes like Munger got wiped out. Munger just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt Wall Street's culture was not worth saving.

[Red Pinstripes]

01:42 PM on 09/21/2010

At least give Mish credit for his quote.

[monicaangela]

07:33 AM on 09/21/2010

Thank you Mr. President for allowing these exchanges during a townhall meeting.  I can't imagine this happening during the last administration.

I do have to take exception with your statement that everybody is hurting.  How can you come from a fundraising dinner where the meal cost 30,000 dollars a plate, while you are raising millions of dollars for candidates running for office on the democratic ticket, and believe that everybody is hurting is beyond my understanding.

I don't expect you to have the economy fixed within two years, especially when you walked into the situation you did, but I do expect you to understand that those that are not able to contribute to these campaigns or go to these fundraiser dinners, those that can't even afford to feed themselves without food stamps are those that are hurting.  The economy might be improving, but it is not over for these people.

After a disaster, it has become mandatory to survey the area, and find out what you need to do to help the people, as in Katrina, after the mid-west floods, the california fires, etc., I believe it is time for you to take a tour through the neighborhoods in this country that have been most heavily hit by this recession, and you will find that in some of these areas it has been more like a depression than a recession.

I don't expect you to be able to fix this overnight, or maybe not even during your Presidency, but I do believe that if you have a better idea of what is happening throughout the nation, you might have a better idea as to where our resources need to be directed.

Good luck in your next two years in office, I hope you will begin to tackle the problems of mainstreet, some people are really hurting and can't find their way back up without your help, extend a hand to those people the way you have to the top 10 percent in this nation.

[thrashertm]

02:36 PM on 09/23/2010

Oh but they ARE hurting. In a time of prosperity, it would have been a $40K/plate fundraiser =)

We help Americans find jobs and prosperity in Asia. Visit http://www.pathtoasia.com for details.

[golf1010]

06:53 AM on 09/21/2010

A joke these old rich white dudes who lose are like cats 9 lives while we get only 1 chance

[Frank Choi]

12:33 AM on 09/21/2010

Josh Rosner once again has the only insight worth listening to-- why don't Munger and Buffett do the American public a big favor and just go away.

[doneflyin]

11:37 PM on 09/20/2010

Is "suck it up and cope" the modern version of "let them eat cake?"

[AtlantaIconoclast]

06:15 PM on 09/20/2010

Charlie Munger is typical of the plutocracy that has raped our nation, and thinks we should be grateful. I am so sick of this tired attempt by the mainstream news establishment to once again remind us of how smart they were for backing the bailouts. Newsflash to the elites! Your so called solution only delayed the eventual crash that will make the last look like a little blip. The bailouts institutionalized moral hazard, the biggest cause of the crisis. We have rewarded the fools who made stupid business decisions. The bailouts did not fix the underlying problem, and that is what the media continues to ignore.

[givesflack]

05:32 PM on 09/20/2010

hey Munger, Thanks for ripping off our treasury to line Wall Streets pockets with money they stole from us. Suck it up and cope is what we will be stealing you when we come to get it back. Pitchforks and more....

[thrashertm]

02:40 PM on 09/23/2010

...tar and feathers would be a good start.

[Walter H]

05:09 PM on 09/20/2010

Because God sent the bailouts. And all this time I thought it was the US government.

[hellboundtrain]

04:55 PM on 09/20/2010

If their were no bailouts and the Mungers of the world had to live with the consequences of their very bad business decisions; yes many people would have been out of work that used to be employed with their corporations, but those Mungers would have learned a needed lesson in morals, instead of trillions of dollars being foisted onto the backs of citizens currently living and future citizens countless generations into the future. We still have the derivatives to deal with, don't we?

A huge majority of The People are sick and tired of aging immoral jerks running the show.

[thrashertm]

02:42 PM on 09/23/2010

Munger needs to be publicly turned out on the street, penniless and decrepit, and forced to live in the squalor he and his cronies have brought upon so many others.