Charlie Munger Speech

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Sep 27, 2010
Last week a video was posted of Charlie Munger speaking at his Alma mater, the Ross School of Business in Michigan. Munger spoke for about two hours. Since I assume most people did not watch the whole speech, I will post my summary of the speech.

“The best way to get what you want in life is to deserve what you want”, states Charlie Munger. In this conversation, Mr. Munger relates his personal views in an intelligent, new, and humorous account of the flaws in today’s politics and society. He begins with a take on envy as the fall of the economy, and states that it is the worst of emotions one can have, instructing his audience that “Envy is the least fun of the Seven Deadly sins” and to “Pick one of the other 6 to have.” With that in mind, the business philanthropist begins speaking up about his personal opinions regarding the “wrongs and rights” of government.

On the issue of Wall Street, Mr. Munger relays it was not a good move for those in high positions to have made “easy money”, and that those who had the ability to fix what was taking place, failed at fixing it. He now feels there is no intelligent way to reverse this predicament, and wonders; “How anyone who has any respect for human nature wouldn’t predict that those who were tempted wouldn’t be able to resist that temptation” (an obvious shot at the laissez faire policies that contributed to the current mess). Munger advises us that making it easy to steal causes good people to do bad things. Munger also feels the accountants are to blame; however, laying the responsibility on those accountants has escaped all of us. He believes that if people had concentrated on something sensible, we could have gotten behind each problem we are facing. Still, although slightly pessimistic, Mr. Munger has some hope for our future, and feels we may have the chance to redeem.

Pertaining to the healthcare industry, Mr. Munger wants nothing more than for hospitals to admit their mistakes the way his hospital in Michigan does. He brings to light the tiny percentage of healthcare workers who approach patients personally, when they have done something wrong. Munger also discusses the need to increase awareness of abuse in healthcare, and believes the only way to combat that is for the people in charge to stand up and speak up against it. He is adamant that we continue to criticize each other, insisting that it is a “huge mistake” for us to stop. The Munger affirms that we are in for a great change where Asia will become more important than the America, and though it may take some getting used to.

While Munger admits some of his prejudices aren’t fair, he considers the fact that he has seen so many mistakes in his time on the part of our philanthropic groups, but has also seen so much good done by creative individuals; especially, according to his personal principles, the governing style of Singapore. Mr. Munger reports that Singapore’s government is the correct and single most successful way to govern in that they put an immediate end to things that will spread quickly. He discusses the random drug testing, the law that passed concerning suggestions of favorability toward another country, dealing with the Malaria outbreak, and the history of Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew – whom Mr. Munger speaks very highly of. Unfortunately, as he so eloquently puts it, “Nobody is going to do it ‘Munger Style’”.

The video can be found at the following link: http://rossmedia.bus.umich.edu/rossmedia/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=4d215177cbe44b1e8e94d0dd68f5058f

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