You can't have your cake and eat it
Jul 1, 2021 11:25:06 GMT
icemandios, c2crusher, and 1 more like this
Post by jakemn on Jul 1, 2021 11:25:06 GMT
This article popped up for a read this morning. As I sometimes admire what Berkshire built I decided to give it a read. After making inordinate sums of money through United States Capitalism, did these two storied investors finally decide that Communism is where it is at? Or, do they view their "boring" businesses as threatened by upstart unicorns, small business, and the increasing pressure for Contractor style employment which is antithetical to the conglomerate they are building? I believe The Oracle's comments at the end are telling, as I believe he is secretly laughing inside. A bit disappointed in these comments. China stepped in, not because they were scared of financial speculation in Ant, they stepped in to stamp out free speech and criticisms of the government. It was a message, a signal, of who is in charge. And Mr. Munger wants a piece of that.
(Reuters) -Berkshire Hathaway Inc Vice Chairman Charlie Munger praised China's move to impose a sweeping restructuring on Jack Ma’s Ant Group, the fintech giant whose record $37 billion IPO was derailed by regulators in November.
The 97-year-old told CNBC in an interview alongside Berkshire CEO and billionaire investor Warren Buffett that the United States should take a leaf out of China's book and "step in preemptively to stop speculation".
"I don't want the, all of the Chinese system, but I certainly would like to have the financial part of it in my own country," he said in the interview aired on Tuesday in the United States.
"Communist Party-ruled China "did the right thing" by reining in Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, who has hardly been seen in public since he criticised regulators in a speech in October last year.
Chinese regulators pulled the plug on Alibaba affiliate Ant's IPO and forced it to turn itself into a financial holding firm, a move expected to curb some of its freewheeling businesses.
Alibaba was also hit with a record $2.75 billion antitrust penalty as China tightens controls on the booming “platform economy”.
"Communists did the right thing. They just called in Jack Ma and say, "You aren't gonna do it, sonny," Munger said.
He also praised China's response to the novel coronavirus. China imposed strictly enforced lockdowns and widespread curbs on movement, measures that would be less acceptable to Americans.
"They simply shut down the country for six weeks. And that turned out to be exactly the right thing to do," Munger said.
Buffett said the pandemic had hurt smaller companies the most.
"I don't know how many but many hundreds of thousands or millions of small businesses have been hurt in a terrible way, but most of the big, big companies have overwhelmingly done fine, unless they happen to be in cruise lines or, you know, or hotels or something," he said.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath and Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel and Stephen Coates)
(Reuters) -Berkshire Hathaway Inc Vice Chairman Charlie Munger praised China's move to impose a sweeping restructuring on Jack Ma’s Ant Group, the fintech giant whose record $37 billion IPO was derailed by regulators in November.
The 97-year-old told CNBC in an interview alongside Berkshire CEO and billionaire investor Warren Buffett that the United States should take a leaf out of China's book and "step in preemptively to stop speculation".
"I don't want the, all of the Chinese system, but I certainly would like to have the financial part of it in my own country," he said in the interview aired on Tuesday in the United States.
"Communist Party-ruled China "did the right thing" by reining in Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, who has hardly been seen in public since he criticised regulators in a speech in October last year.
Chinese regulators pulled the plug on Alibaba affiliate Ant's IPO and forced it to turn itself into a financial holding firm, a move expected to curb some of its freewheeling businesses.
Alibaba was also hit with a record $2.75 billion antitrust penalty as China tightens controls on the booming “platform economy”.
"Communists did the right thing. They just called in Jack Ma and say, "You aren't gonna do it, sonny," Munger said.
He also praised China's response to the novel coronavirus. China imposed strictly enforced lockdowns and widespread curbs on movement, measures that would be less acceptable to Americans.
"They simply shut down the country for six weeks. And that turned out to be exactly the right thing to do," Munger said.
Buffett said the pandemic had hurt smaller companies the most.
"I don't know how many but many hundreds of thousands or millions of small businesses have been hurt in a terrible way, but most of the big, big companies have overwhelmingly done fine, unless they happen to be in cruise lines or, you know, or hotels or something," he said.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath and Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel and Stephen Coates)