Money and Finance
- Stretching For The Right People...
Comment from Charlie Munger about Iscar, via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2007 Wesco Annual Meeting:It’s not a Ben Graham stock – in fact, it would be the ultimate non-Ben Graham stock. It’s located a few miles from the Lebanese border in Israel....
- A 13% Hurdle...
Just an interesting couple of comments mentioning the 13% hurdle number which I hadn’t noticed together until recently. In Poor Charlie's Almanack, I think there was also a comment from Munger along the lines that Berkshire's one big, 'hedgehog'...
- Charlie Munger On Opportunity Cost…
Via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2006 Wesco Annual Meeting:It doesn’t matter to Warren where the opportunity is. He has no preconceived ideas about whether Berkshire’s money ought to be in this or that. He’s scanning the world trying to get...
- Charlie Munger On Capital And Credit In 2005...
Via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2005 Wesco Annual Meeting:It is weird the way that capital occurs. We have monetized houses in this country in a way that’s never occurred before. Ask Joe how he bought a new Cadillac [and he’ll say] from borrowing...
- Charlie Munger On Having The Right Compensation System...
Via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2005 Wesco Annual Meeting:It isn’t enough to buy the right business. You’ve also have to have a compensation system that’s satisfactory to the people running them. At Berkshire Hathaway, we have no [single]...
Money and Finance
Charlie Munger on efficient markets and bureaucracy
Via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2007 Wesco Annual Meeting:
If markets were efficient, this tent wouldn’t be so full. Some business schools are teaching properly, but the world grew up amidst a different fashion, encouraged by academics of the era. What we believe is simple, and many avoid it because of that simplicity. They want to be experts. And how can you be an expert if it’s simple? Also, execution is difficult – and people don’t like to fail.
The whole institutional reward system encourages different behavior and thought. If you went to work at a big firm, you’d grind your way up. It’s a hierarchy. Nobody cares about how to do it better. And by the time you’d been there 10-15 years, you’d be thinking their way. This didn’t happen to Warren.
[Wesco board member] Peter Kaufman came into a business [Glenair] and became the CEO in his early 30s, so he’s been the CEO a long time. The whole place is twenty or more times bigger. That’s a Berkshire experience, but that’s not normal. Normal bureaucracy doesn’t reward an attitude like ours.
- Stretching For The Right People...
Comment from Charlie Munger about Iscar, via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2007 Wesco Annual Meeting:It’s not a Ben Graham stock – in fact, it would be the ultimate non-Ben Graham stock. It’s located a few miles from the Lebanese border in Israel....
- A 13% Hurdle...
Just an interesting couple of comments mentioning the 13% hurdle number which I hadn’t noticed together until recently. In Poor Charlie's Almanack, I think there was also a comment from Munger along the lines that Berkshire's one big, 'hedgehog'...
- Charlie Munger On Opportunity Cost…
Via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2006 Wesco Annual Meeting:It doesn’t matter to Warren where the opportunity is. He has no preconceived ideas about whether Berkshire’s money ought to be in this or that. He’s scanning the world trying to get...
- Charlie Munger On Capital And Credit In 2005...
Via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2005 Wesco Annual Meeting:It is weird the way that capital occurs. We have monetized houses in this country in a way that’s never occurred before. Ask Joe how he bought a new Cadillac [and he’ll say] from borrowing...
- Charlie Munger On Having The Right Compensation System...
Via Whitney Tilson’s notes from the 2005 Wesco Annual Meeting:It isn’t enough to buy the right business. You’ve also have to have a compensation system that’s satisfactory to the people running them. At Berkshire Hathaway, we have no [single]...