Remembering Charlie Munger: A Life of Wit and Wisdom Part 2 5/2/25

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, Investing, Business, News

4 • 494 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“I’m an accidental guru.” He was irreverent, he was focused, he was one of the world’s most successful investors, and he was one of a kind. Billionaire investor Charlie Munger, the longtime right-hand man and close friend of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, died a few weeks shy of what would have been his 100th birthday. Becky Quick, Squawk Box co-host, interviewed Munger two weeks before his death in his home in Los Angeles. In Part 2 of this special conversation, Charlie Munger reflects on the childhood traumas that shaped him and the investing wins and losses that made his career. For more, revisit our 2021 Squawk Pod series, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger: A Wealth of Wisdom. Squawk Pod is produced by Katie Kramer, Cameron Costa, Karoline Rouhotas and Zach Vallese. CNBC’s Managing Editor is Lacy O’Toole. John Lazration edited this podcast series.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Charlie Munger may be best known as Berkshire Hathaway's vice chairman, Warren Buffett's best friend,
0:07.8	confidant and business partner for six and a half decades.
0:11.0	But Munger was also a giant in his own right.
0:13.7	He was a scold of corporate excess and greed.
0:16.1	He preached to a large flock of devout followers about how to get along in investing and in life.
0:22.4	A Renaissance man, Munger modeled himself after none other than Benjamin Franklin.
0:26.8	He studied mathematics, physics, meteorology, and engineering.
0:29.8	And that was all before he attended Harvard Law School.
0:33.5	He trained himself in subjects like psychology and architecture.
0:37.1	Charlie passed away at the age of 99.
0:39.2	That was just one month shy of his 100th birthday,
0:41.9	and it was two weeks after our last interview with him.
0:45.2	I'm Becky Quick of CNBC, co-host of Squawk Box.
0:48.8	This is Charlie Munger, a life of wit and wisdom.
0:55.6	All the great records are partly work, partly talent, and partly luck.
1:03.2	That's what you expect to win.
1:06.2	With this many people in the game of investment,
1:09.9	of course the big winners are going to be people who get luck and who get work and
1:18.2	talent and luck.
1:21.0	That's what we've had.
1:23.3	What was interesting about Berkshire's history is what turned the first $300 million of
1:31.6	Berkshire net worth into the first $3 billion of Berkshire net worth.
	...

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