Daily Journal 2019

[netnet]

Is it me, or do the questions seem worse and worse every year? (In this case, on average, I don't remember any really, really bad questions. But overall mostly weak questions.)

 

And two people asked almost the same question, re: Thorndike's Outsiders, BUT interestingly enough for the first time, that I'm aware of Munger actually implied that they should have bought Teledyne, often both he and Warren have damned Singleton with faint praise.)

[gfp]

anybody know if he did the Q&A after the meeting like last time?

 

Would be interesting to see any follow-up interviews as well.  There was at least this comment cited by Bloomberg:

 

"Buffett had long praised JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon even as Berkshire Hathaway didn’t invest in the stock. Berkshire eventually plowed in when the timing aligned, according to Vice Chairman Charles Munger. “As investment has gotten harder and the banks have done better and better, we’ve finally reached a crossing point where he was willing to act,” Munger said Thursday in an interview after the Daily Journal Corp. meeting in Los Angeles."

 

 

Plus, Charlie will be on CNBC tomorrow morning I am told

[Jurgis]

Is it me, or do the questions seem worse and worse every year? (In this case, on average, I don't remember any really, really bad questions. But overall mostly weak questions.)

 

And two people asked almost the same question, re: Thorndike's Outsiders, BUT interestingly enough for the first time, that I'm aware of Munger actually implied that they should have bought Teledyne, often both he and Warren have damned Singleton with faint praise.)

 

I don't think questions get worse. I've said before though that Q&A format is not productive for in-depth discussion.

 

I think Munger's hearing and tolerance are going down though. So anyone who asks three level question gets nothing back. But even simpler questions pretty much got short answers.

[netnet]

I just noticed that Charlie was in a wheelchair in the CNBC interview.  Was he in a wheelchair at the meeting?

 

[merkhet]

I just noticed that Charlie was in a wheelchair in the CNBC interview.  Was he in a wheelchair at the meeting?

 

Yes

[BG2008]

Q: Given that you've been partners for many years, why is Warren Buffett so much richer than you are?

 

Charlie: Well, he got an earlier start, he worked harder and is probably smarter than I am. ..pause..  Why was Albert Einstein poorer than I was?

 

Munger spends money, he donates money, he spends it on a yacht

 

http://channelcatcharters.com/

 

Can you imagine Munger smoking a cigar and saying "yea, bitches!" with models in bikinis dancing around him?  Yes, I can. 

 

 

[Charlie]

Some great quotes:

 

FEES ARE A BIG TOLL

 

“People don’t realise, because they’re so mathematically illiterate, is that if you make five per cent and pay two of it to your advisers, you’re not losing 40 percent of your future. You’re losing 90 percent because over a long period of time that little difference becomes a 90 percent disadvantage to you. So it’s hugely important for somebody who is a long term holder not to be paying a big annual toll out of performance.”

 

 

DIVERSIFICATION VS. EXCELLENCE

 

“The whole idea of [wide] diversification when you’re looking for excellence is totally ridiculous. It doesn’t work. It gives you an impossible task. What fun is it to do an impossible task over and over again?”

 

 

https://vintagevalueinvesting.com/daily-journal-meeting-notes-2019/

[longtermdave]

I agree with him that fees are a big toll, but I think he's exaggerating a bit with that 90% loss. I can't get the numbers to work, even playing with taxes, churn, inflation, and assuming someone invests at day zero and lives to 100 years old. Can anyone else get to that number?

 

 

Some great quotes:

 

FEES ARE A BIG TOLL

 

“People don’t realise, because they’re so mathematically illiterate, is that if you make five per cent and pay two of it to your advisers, you’re not losing 40 percent of your future. You’re losing 90 percent because over a long period of time that little difference becomes a 90 percent disadvantage to you. So it’s hugely important for somebody who is a long term holder not to be paying a big annual toll out of performance.”

 

 

DIVERSIFICATION VS. EXCELLENCE

 

“The whole idea of [wide] diversification when you’re looking for excellence is totally ridiculous. It doesn’t work. It gives you an impossible task. What fun is it to do an impossible task over and over again?”

 

 

https://vintagevalueinvesting.com/daily-journal-meeting-notes-2019/

[Rod]

I couldn't figure out the 90% either--unless you invest for 120 years.

[Jurgis]

I couldn't figure out the 90% either--unless you invest for 120 years.

 

$1 at 5% return in 100 years = 131.50

$1 at 3% return in 100 years = 19.22

[nickenumbers]

Q: Given that you've been partners for many years, why is Warren Buffett so much richer than you are?

 

Charlie: Well, he got an earlier start, he worked harder and is probably smarter than I am. ..pause..  Why was Albert Einstein poorer than I was?

 

 

Q: Given that you've been partners for many years, why is Warren Buffett so much richer than you are?

 

A:  Charlie: Well, he got an earlier start, he worked harder and is probably smarter than I am. ..pause..

 

 

<<95 yr old Charlie Munger Translation>>

 

A:  You got jokes, youngster?

A:  Why was Albert Einstein poorer than I was???    BIA-CHHhhh.....!

 

http://m.memegen.com/fnx6x0.jpg

[nickenumbers]

All,

 

It seems like Munger often doesn't brag on his kids, or he might not be super proud of them.  He said it again in this talk that temperaments are not taught, or some such thing like his kids are not the same as him..  I forget the comment, but it is not complementary.  He rarely makes positive comments about his kids.

 

Why?

 

 

In what I have read he has said that one son is like a Rocket Scientist, and his daughter is a Lawyer in LA. 

[cubsfan]

All,

 

It seems like Munger often doesn't brag on his kids, or he might not be super proud of them.  He said it again in this talk that temperaments are not taught, or some such thing like his kids are not the same as him..  I forget the comment, but it is not complementary.  He rarely makes positive comments about his kids.

 

Why?

 

 

In what I have read he has said that one son is like a Rocket Scientist, and his daughter is a Lawyer in LA.

 

Well, there are 7 of them, so maybe they all are not perfect. I do think his daughter, Molly is quite accomplished.

[merkhet]

He has bragged about them in the past. In particular, Molly apparently bought a house for a friend who was a victim of spousal abuse. The friend didn’t really have a vocation, but she had the courage to pack up and take the kids away from that situation. Munger praised Molly for buying a house and letting the friend live there. (Paraphrased) “We’re rich. What do we need the extra income for? And this was the right thing to do. It’s exactly how someone rich should behave.”

[Grenville]

He has bragged about them in the past. In particular, Molly apparently bought a house for a friend who was a victim of spousal abuse. The friend didn’t really have a vocation, but she had the courage to pack up and take the kids away from that situation. Munger praised Molly for buying a house and letting the friend live there. (Paraphrased) “We’re rich. What do we need the extra income for? And this was the right thing to do. It’s exactly how someone rich should behave.”

 

Thanks for sharing that anecdote. I hadn't heard it before!

[johnny]

Either you publicly praise your most-favored children, who probably aren't so insecure as to need public endorsement, and piss off your other kids, or you disingenuously praise everybody with an imposed equal-airtime principle, which ends up communicating the exact same heirarchical information to anybody with half a brain.

 

I don't know why an intelligent adult would bother bragging about their adult children to a bunch of strangers who don't know any of the people involved. Except for POTUS, of course who is very smart and cool.