Warren Buffett in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick on February 24, 2020.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
My first experience with one of the men Peter Thiel called “the sociopath grandpa from Omaha” was in the early 1990s.
Joe Kernen and I are looking at the “stocks to watch” segment and discussing Berkshire Hathaway’s earnings. As part of that discussion, we chatted about our favorite companies in Warren Buffettinvestment’s portfolio.
Mine is See’s Candy, spent 17 years of my life in Southern California where See’s is sold. Joe’s is NetJets.
Suffice it to say, less than 24 hours later, there were two large boxes on my desk that contained 10 pounds of See’s candies and a note that said, “Thanks for the mention. Warren.”
I had never met Buffett before so I called him, thanked him for the candy, assuring him that I had no intention of sharing it with my colleagues.
He laughed and told me to tell Joe not to expect a jet.
Since then, we have had a cordial professional and personal relationship. As I also had with Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink, both of whom on Thursday joined Buffett as identified by the libertarian investor Thiel as part of the “capitalist regime”. The team is holding back Bitcoin’s further development to protect their own financial interests, Thiel said.
That’s a little bit of calling the kettle black, as Thiel is using that criticism to defend and tout his bitcoin holdings.
Furthermore, I have never dealt with any of these gentlemen who find them heartless, backward, or unwilling to accept new ideas or technologies, if they can earn it. profits from their use in the mainstream financial sector.
Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest single investor of our lifetime, Dimon, our most savvy banking CEO, and Fink, whose firm invests over $10 trillion pioneered in more accessible ways for the public to invest, is the builder of the largest wealth management company in the world.
This is not to say that these old-school business giants are infallible, nor that they are completely spotless or missed opportunities.
However, they are students of money and market history, astute and wealthy investors, especially Buffett, are beyond our wildest dreams.
In fact, you would need the combined net worth of all the crypto billionaires in the world to surpass Buffett’s wealth.
Some people will accuse me of spoiling these men. I have moved beyond the point of acclaim, both in my life and in my career. In fact, I never waste it. Never needed.
However, what I have found in Bitcoin and crypto enthusiasts or advocates is that they are trying too hard to convince the world that a new global currency is necessary for democracy. financialization and provide assistance to those with little access to banks, payment systems or investable assets.
You can simply achieve that by giving everyone in the world a smartphone and linking to simple finance apps.
Problem with bitcoin
Bitcoin is still a solution to a problem.
Payment systems are evolving rapidly, offering many benefits to consumers from reduced transaction costs, secure payments to smart contracts, and faster processing and payments, all of which are growing rapidly. happening even as the value of Bitcoin stagnates.
Blockchain and Ethereum are largely responsible for that payment system revolution while other systems are evolving more rapidly which will create ever-increasing efficiencies from which consumers will benefit, no matter what. or no bitcoins or 12,000 other cryptocurrencies minted to date.
Thiel’s highly personal attack on Buffett, Dimon, and Fink has no effect on bitcoin.
By its very nature, bitcoin is too volatile to stand as a unit of account, a medium of exchange or, so to speak, a store of value – in short, it has no attributes that define a currency. currency or currency.
I was horribly wrong about the price of Bitcoin. But not so much about its use case.
It still represents a small part of the world monetary system. Its $820 billion market value (whatever means “currency”) is small when compared to dollars in circulation globally and pales in comparison to the $13 trillion value of backlog of gold in the world, the currency of choice for most of the planet.
Thiel believes that rich, powerful men like Buffett, Dimon and Fink are suppressing what he describes as a “revolutionary youth movement”.
Probably.
Perhaps the other explanation is that, like many of us approaching or past retirement age, we have seen too many investment cycles, too many fads, madness and bubbles to we can more easily and easily identify the financial preferred flights that we would still be suspicious of more naturally.
And we want to warn the public about their inherent risks in trading them for personal rewards. If this is social insight, then use it!
