Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger expresses his dislike towards cryptocurrency and compares it to a ‘venereal disease’ during the annual general meeting of Los Angeles-based publication Daily Journal.
On Wednesday, while talking about the tensions between the United States and China, Charlie Munger, 98, attacked cryptocurrency saying it should have been banned earlier, and called it “beneath contempt.”
Charlie Munger’s Statements
Charlie Munger is known as the vice-chairman of Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc since 1978. Warren‘s longtime business partner, Munger talked about cryptocurrency in an interview on Wednesday.
Munger expressed his surprise at the rising popularity of Cryptocurrency. “If you stop to think about it, it’s an ideal currency if you want to commit extortion, or kidnapping, or have a protection racket or something.”
Further, he added, “Why should a civilized government want an ideal untraceable technology to come into the payment system run by a bunch of people who want to get rich quick for doing very little for civilization. Of course, I hate it.” Last year he had called Bitcoin, “rat poison,” and expressed his hate on the currency.
“I don’t think it’s good that our country is going crazy over bitcoin and its ilk. I think the Communist Chinese were wiser than we were. They just banned it.”
Munger elaborated more on the matter, “The truth of the matter is our regulatory establishment when they quit the government, they go out into this heavily promotional capitalism and so it’s very hard to get the government to make good, wise decisions about something like bitcoin.” He even stated, “I wish it had been banned immediately, and I admire the Chinese for banning it.”
Crypto: A venereal disease
When asked about his investments he shared, “I certainly didn’t invest in crypto. I’m proud of the fact I’ve avoided it. It’s like a venereal disease or something. I just regard it as beneath contempt.”
Previously in December, he had said, “I’m never going to buy a cryptocurrency. I wish they’d never been invented.” He advised other investors not to put up anything in the crypto business. “The whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization.”
For all we can say, the future of cryptocurrency is a blur. But it’s not something that can be wholly avoided as now, it’s everywhere. Only time will tell!
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