Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, has recently reiterated his stance against Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency industry. In an opinion published in the Wall Street Journal, Munger argued that the lack of regulation in the U.S. has allowed unvetted private companies to issue thousands of cryptocurrencies, which pose a risk to the country’s economic health. To support his point, Munger cited China’s decision to ban cryptocurrencies and an incident in England in the early 1700s where the country banned all public trading in new common stocks. Munger argued that the U.S. should follow in the footsteps of China and ban all cryptocurrencies, and thanked the Chinese communist leader for his “splendid example of uncommon sense”. He believes that such a ban would prevent incidents of people amassing profits by using slow-moving sailing ships to trade with the poor.
Munger argued that cryptocurrencies are neither currencies nor commodities and securities, but rather gambling contracts that are traditionally regulated by “states that compete in laxity”. He believes that such digital assets have become publicly traded without governmental pre-approval of disclosures and pose a risk to the country’s economic health. The Berkshire vice-chairman insisted that the U.S. enact a new federal law to ban cryptocurrencies and prevent such incidents from continuing. He believes that such a ban would be beneficial to the country’s economic health and would contribute to the march of civilization.
