Monday, July 25, 2016

Berkshire 2016 Meeting: Charlie Munger Highlights - Part II

A quick follow up to this recent post.

Below are some additional comments made by Charlie Munger at the 2016 Berkshire Hathaway (BRKashareholder meeting:

Berkshire 2016 Meeting: Charlie Munger Highlights - Part I

On Anchoring
"...we're not anchored to what we're ignoring. We try to avoid the worst anchoring effect, which is always your previous conclusion. We really try and destroy our previous ideas."

On "Standard Stupidities"
"What you've got to do is be aversive to the standard stupidities. If you just keep those out, you don't have to be smart."

On Volumes
"...sometimes when you reduce volume it is very intelligent because you're losing money on the volume you're discarding. It's quite common for a business not only to have more employees than it needs, but it sometimes has two or three customers that could be better off without. So it's hard to judge from outside whether things are good or bad just because volume is going up or down a little."

On Negative Interest Rates
"I don't think anybody really knows much about negative interest rates...None of the great economists who studied this stuff and taught it to our children understand it either...our advantage is that we know we don't understand it."

Munger then added:

"If you're not confused then you haven't thought about it correctly."

And Warren Buffett chimed in with:

"I thought about it correctly then."

On Packaged Goods
"A lot of great businesses aren't quite so great as they used to be. The package goods business[es] ...are all weaker than they used to be at their peak."

On Humor
"I think if you see the world accurately, it's bound to be humorous because it's ridiculous."

Here's a comprehensive transcipt of what was said at the meeting by both Buffett and Munger.

Also, here's a transcript focused on what Charlie had to say.

Adam

Long position in BRKb established at much lower than recent prices

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