Berkshire’s Munger Says ‘Venal’ Banks May Evade Needed Reform

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg

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.”

Munger said policy makers should seek to impose limits on banks that are deemed “too big to fail” after financial institutions worldwide suffered more than $1 trillion in losses. The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the recession.

“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.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aRGmF1WqsCgA&refer=home

[No Elephants]

1. BH became a stockholder in GS and WF at the time that the US was bailing out banks--and got

a deal that was literally TEN TIMES better than the deal Paulson, Bush and Hanky Panky Bernanke were able to negotiate for the US taxpayer. Ten times better.

Don't it make my brown eyes see red?

[Baby Snooks]

8. Which is why Warren Buffett should have been Secretary of the Treasury...

But what does he know? A lot apparently. He certainly knows how to
"make a deal" and not only protect his own interest but the interest of his shareholders.

[snowdays]

2. The 'its too big to fail" mentality comes from the WH and folks

like Summers and Geitnher.

[Turbineguy]

3. That fits in with what a friend of mine thinks

and that is that the banks will collapse the economy before they agree to changes.

Luckily, some of those big egos are on the chopping block.

[Joanne98]

5. That's what I think too.

[jpak]

4. K&R

n/t

[WestSeattle2]

6. This is all very true.....an excellent in-depth article

which explains this issue can be found here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice/

It's a long article but well worth a read.

[Democrats_win]

10. Great article! Banking oligarchs won't allow changes that are needed to help America.

[indypaul]

7. Obviously the smaller banks are not

receiving the same treatment. Three were placed in receivership
yesterday by FDIC. To date (5/1/09) that makes 31 as opposed to
25 in 2008.

www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html

[bvar22]

9. The time to impose regulation....

The time to impose regulation is BEFORE handing over the money.

There is no lever to force regulation AFTER they get the money.....
but our "representatives in government" already know that.

The ONLY thing we will see now is some pure theater and some ineffective finger pointing for the voters back home. The system that benefits THE RICH will be protected.

Fuck Them.
I QUIT.


NOW we have Your Children’s Money too !!!
And there is not a fucking thing you can do about it!
Now THIS is “Post-Partisanship” !
Better get used to it!!
Hahahahahahahahaha!

[Iowa]

11. Yep...

The country has been sold out. Any glimmer of hope we had a few months ago has been squandered.

It's over.

[Skink]

12. Bershire Hathaway could probably effect Goldmans bottom line if

Goldman lobby's to hard against regulation.