You are here
'Civilized people don't buy gold,' Berkshire's Munger says
By Margo D. Beller
CNBC, New York
Friday, May 4, 2012
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47298734
Warren Buffett's right-hand man doesn't like gold as his boss does, Charles Munger told CNBC Friday on the eve of Berkshire Hathway's annual meeting.
"Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you're a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939," the Berkshire vice chairman said, "but I think civilized people don't buy gold, they invest in productive businesses."
Munger, 88, said he loves Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio of such businesses, which includes, among many others, the Burlington Northern railroad, specialty chemicals firm Lubrizol, and Geico insurance.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Be Part of a Chance to Discover
Multi-Million-Ounce Gold and Silver Deposits in Canada
Northaven Resources Corp. (TSX-V:NTV) is advancing five gold and silver projects in highly prospective and politically stable British Columbia, Canada.
Check out the exploration program on our Allco gold/silver project :
-- A large (13,000 hectare) property, covering more than 15 square kilometers of a regional mineralized trend just 3km from a recently announced 1.2-million-ounce gold and 15-million-ounce silver deposit.
-- The property hosts historic high-grade silver workings and many mineral showings as well as former mines at the property's northern and southern boundaries.
-- A deep-penetrating airborne geophysics survey has just been completed on the entire property and neighboring deposits and its results are eagerly awaited.
To learn more about the Allco property or Northaven's other gold and silver projects, please visit:
http://www.northavenresources.com
Or call Northaven CEO Allen Leschert at 604-696-3600.
"We just have a wonderful portfolio in business, if you average them out," Munger said. "By and large they're doing productive, useful work. It’s not outsmarting the computer systems in the trading markets."
For the most part, he agrees with Buffett's "simple" investment strategy, which he said is "pretty agnostic." "We’ve always been opportunistic" in investing, he said.
Munger said that unlike Buffett, who announced he is fighting early-stage prostate cancer, he doesn't even bother to get his PSA levels checked.
But he understands the concerns about succession at Berkshire. While Buffett's successor has not been publicly named, Munger said he has "never been more comfortable about succession or duration of [Berkshire's] culture than ... right now. Our new investment people show enormous promise."
* * *
Join GATA here:
Las Vegas Money Show
Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas
Monday-Thursday, May 14-17, 2012
http://www.moneyshow.com/tradeshow/las_vegas/moneyshow/
Committee for Monetary Research and Education
Spring Dinner Meeting
"Money and the Corporate State"
Union League Club, New York, N.Y.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
http://www.cmre.org/
Vancouver World Resource Investment Conference
Sunday-Monday, June 3-4, 2012
Vancouver Convention Centre East
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
http://www.cambridgehouse.com/event/world-resource-investment-conference
Standard Chartered's Earth Resources Conference
Wednesday-Thursday, June 20-21, 2012
J.W. Marriott, Hong Kong
http://www.standardcharteredsignatureevents.com/earths-resources/welcome...
Hong Kong Gold Investment Forum
Monday-Wednesday, June 25-27, 2012
Renaissance Harbour View Hotel, Hong Kong
http://www.hkgoldinvestmentforum.com/
Toronto Resource Investment Conference
Thursday-Friday, September 27-28, 2012
Toronto Sheraton Centre Hotel
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
http://www.cambridgehouse.com/event/toronto-resource-investment-conference
New Orleans Investment Conference
Wednesday-Saturday, October 24-27, 2012
Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.neworleansconference.com/
* * *
Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006:
http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html
Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
