I hope you got scared because that is what it was meant to do.
Anywhere you look you will see headlines like these: “predicts a horrible economic crisis where everything will collapse.”
Media sells. Sex sells. Fear sells. And catchy headlines are the bait to selling.
I typically avoid headlines like these. Although I do watch some of these CNBC videos every few days. Why? Well, I’m not a late night show type persons, so these CNBC videos are my humor timeouts.
Although I saw a headline on my twitter feed that made me click and read the article. It said: “Charlie Munger predicts a horrible economic crisis where everything will collapse.” I would have not clicked on it had it not been Charlie’s name on it. When Charlie says something, I’m all ears.
So I read the article keenly looking for where Charlie says “everything will collapse.” I mean if Charlie really sees “everything will collapse” then why is Berkshire buying shares in Occidental. The time when everyone was feeling “everything will collapse” was in the 2007 crisis. Even Buffett came out and said that what Bush and the treasury department did, saved the entire financial system. Is Charlie saying we are now in a situation worst than the 2007 crisis?
As I read the article, I could not find anywhere where Charlie says “everything will collapse.” The article is basically pulling pieces of speech that Charlie gave and trying to sensationalize it. All Charlie was doing in his speech was give history lessons about the extremes of debt and inflation. The person writing the article is just taking bits from different history lessons and trying to scare the reader. The author is trying to get as many clicks as he can, so he can sell fear.
Don’t be scared by these predictions. Majority of predictions are wrong. Infact, it is more likely that No doubt Warren Buffett is doing some buying now.