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Weekend reading: Charlie Munger on banking regulation

My regular musings on the week’s best article, followed by other great posts and pieces.

There are three big themes in the papers this weekend, and we’ve already covered them all on Monevator:

Suffice to say, I’ve kept re-investing more of my recently liberated cash [4] into cheaper stocks. I also finally bought some preference shares for my ISA – Natwest ones yielding nearly 9%. I’ll try to write about them soon.

Instead of repeating myself on Greece and the market gyrations, I’d like to highlight a Motley Fool article featuring quotes from the great Charlie Munger [5].

Munger is the self-made billionaire sidekick of Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway. He’s the thinking man’s Buffett. I could read Munger all day, and not only because he agrees with me about bankers:

Most ambitious young men will be more aggressive than they should. That’s what happened with investment banking. I mean, look at Lehman Brothers. Everyone did what they damn well wanted until the whole place was pathological about its extremeness.

When Hitler was in his bunker before he shot himself, he said, “This isn’t my fault. The German people just don’t appreciate me enough.”

That’s the attitude of a lot of bankers. They think their silliness is necessary. Banks will not rein themselves in voluntarily. You need adult supervision.

I could quote the whole article for Munger’s comments on everything from how close we came to economic collapse to business success. But then I’d get sued by The Motley Fool.

Instead, I’ll end with this great quote on the ‘work’ of investing:

Learning has never been work for me. It’s play. I was born innately curious. If that doesn’t work for you, figure out your own damn system.

Old guys: you’ve got to love them! If you missed my piece on Munger’s wrinkly contemporary Walter Schloss [6] last week, go read it, too. (I also wrote about how to use a watchlist [7]).

Finally, I’m out of bed and my back is nearly better. Thanks for the kind comments and emails.

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