Charlie Munger Talks About Chinese Companies, Poor Investment Choices, And Why He Would Never Buy Tesla Stock

The vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) gave his annual address on Wednesday sharing his views on China, the newspaper industry, and Tesla.

Munger is a longtime partner of Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. During his time at Berkshire, the company has returned 2 million% of its initial value.

On China

The 96-year-old Munger, talking about “the strongest companies in the world,” noted that these were not in America. “I think Chinese companies are stronger than ours and are growing faster," Reuters reported.

However, Munger was less impressed with the investment skills in China. "It’s hard to imagine anything dumber than the way the Chinese hold stocks...they’re so good at everything else.” He also said it was really stupid how investors there “live to gamble in stocks.”

On Daily Newspapers

Lamenting the challenges faced by the American newspaper industry, Munger opined that “technological change is destroying daily newspapers,” adding that "they're all dying.”

Berkshire has sold its newspapers the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as well as the Omaha World-Herald. Munger’s partner Buffet has described the business as "toast." 

On Tesla

Munger also touched on the subject of Elon Musk and Tesla Inc. TSLA, saying he would never buy Tesla stock, and he would never sell short. Speaking of Musk’s character, Munger noted he was “peculiar” and prone to overestimate his abilities, but he may not be “wrong” all the time. 

He warned against the “wretched excesses” of the private equity and venture capital industries.

Advice To Younger Generations

Answering the question about life advice, the vice chairman of Berkshire said that the modern world is "radically different," and admitting that he might not do as well as he did if he was just starting. He went on to share, “It would be a lot harder than it was to get ahead in the world the way it was when I came up. My best advice, I think you would be happier if you reduced your expectations.”

Price Action

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class A shares traded 0.065% higher at $341,000 in the regular session on Wednesday.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class B shares traded 0.87% lower at $226.57 in the after-hours session on Wednesday. The shares had closed the regular session 0.048% at $227.44.

Photo Credit: Cover of "The Complete Investor" by Tren Griffin