I don’t know what’s worse

Charles Munger, vice president of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Jonathan Alcorn | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Charlie Munger, vice president of Berkshire Hathaway and longtime business partner of Warren Buffett, on Wednesday rejected the high price of Tesla stock and the recent bitcoin frenzy.

During an interview at the annual meeting of shareholders in the Daily Journal, Munger was asked if he thought it was crazier for Bitcoin to reach $ 50,000 or for Tesla to reach a fully diluted enterprise value of $ 1 trillion, said, “Well, I have the same difficulty that Samuel Johnson once had when he received a similar question, he said, ‘I can’t decide the order of priority between fleas and lice,’ and I feel the same way about those choices.” I don’t know which is the worst. “

Tesla shares rose 743% last year, although they have now fallen about 3% to 2021. Its market capital is about $ 689 billion. Bitcoin has continued to rise to over $ 50,000 in the past week, after Tesla announced it had bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin.

Munger was also asked what the biggest threat is to banking and whether it is digital or digital wallets, such as Apple Pay and Square.

“I don’t think I know what the future holds for banking, and I don’t think I know how the payment system will evolve,” he said. “I believe that a properly managed bank is a great contributor to civilization and that the world’s central banks like to control their own banking system and their own money resources.

“So I don’t think Bitcoin will become a medium for the world. It is too volatile to serve well as a medium of exchange. And it really is a kind of artificial substitute for gold. And since I never buy gold, I never buy bitcoin. “

Munger recommended that others follow his practice.

“Bitcoin reminds me of what Oscar Wilde said about fox hunting. He said it was the pursuit of the unspeakable by the unspeakable,” Munger added.

At the same event, Munger also issued a serious warning to novice investors, who he said are drawn to a trading bubble through applications such as Robinhood.

You can watch the full interview below.

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