Wednesday, May 06, 2009

NO WONDER SOME OF THE MOTU ARE WORRIED

Not only has Warren Buffett criticized them, the vice-chairman of Warren's company has done the same. (h/t Susie Madrak at Crooks & Liars)
Berkshire’s Munger Says ‘Venal’ Banks May Evade Needed Reform
By Christine Harper, Betty Liu and Erik Holm

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Vice Chairman Charles Munger, whose company is the largest private shareholder in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., said banks will use their “enormous political power” to prevent changes to the industry that would benefit society.

“This is an enormously influential group of people, and 90 percent of that influence is being spent to gain powers and practices that the world would be better off without,” Munger, 85, said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “It will be very hard to accomplish the kind of surgery that would be desirable for the wider civilization.”

“We need to remove from the investment banking and the commercial banking industries a lot of the practices and prerogatives that they have so lovingly possessed,” Munger said. “If they are too big to fail, they are too big to be allowed to be as gamey and venal as they’ve been -- and as stupid as they’ve been.”

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