"Munger Tells 25 Million Americans To "Suck It In", And To "Thank God For Bank Bailouts" As BRK Benefits From $95 Billion Of TARP Funding" (BRK.B)

In this morning's "Munger Says `Thank God' U.S. Opted for Bailouts Over Handouts (But What About General Electric, Charlie?) BRK.B; GE" I said:

...Being a billionaire does not make Charlie a genius, it makes him rich.**

This piece seems a bit odd, I'll let you judge after the the Andrew Ross Sorkin interview....

ZeroHedge is less diplomatic (and includes a handy table):

There is a reason why many countries institute mandatory retirement age: it is so that when dementia strikes, and people spout any damn thing that comes to mind, only the nearest four walls are subject to their insanity. Alas, when it comes to Berkshire Hathaway, no such luck. And while we have extensively discussed Warren Buffett's recent inexorable decline from merely a successful rider of the biggest cheap credit bubble in history to a captured puppet of Wall Street courtesy of his tens of billions of Wall Street-related investments, little has been said about his even older, and apparently even more affected by the unpleasant side-effects of a public televised senescence, sidekick, Charlie Munger.

Luckily, courtesy of Bloomberg we now know just how deep the rot runs in the Berkshire family. During a discussion at the Universtiy fo Michigan, the 86 year old told the 25 million of Americans who comprise the 16.7% of the underemployed population in the country, to "suck it in and cope." Not only that, but apparently, all those who have been without a job for 99 weeks and more and no longer have recourse to insurance benefits, should "thank God for bank bailouts." Why of course he would say that: after all $26 billion worth of direct BRK investments were the recipient of over $95 billion in bailouts. So when it comes to him, thank god for the bailout indeed... But when it comes to the little man, old Charlie is all about doing the right thing....MORE

Here's the table:

As for how many of the companies that Berkshire has invested in did take government aid, well, that is an entirely different issue altogether.

EconomicPolicyJournal also weighs in:

Charlie Munger: Bailouts Are Only for Oligarchs

I used to think that Charlie Munger was the better half of the Warren Buffett-Charlie Munger tag team.

He appeared to me to have much more respect for free markets than Buffett. It turns out he is not against all bailouts. He seems to be against bailouts for 'the little people', but all for bailouts of the banking elite....