http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2010/09/20/thank-god-for-bailouts/
Munger, the billionaire value investor who is Warren Buffett's sounding board and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), told students at the University of Michigan this month that the Troubled Asset Relief Program and other handouts to bankers were "absolutely required to save your civilization."
And from Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/...
At the Michigan event, [one questioner] asked whether the government should have bailed out homeowners instead of Wall Street, Munger said: "You've got it exactly wrong."
There’s danger in just shoveling out money to people who say, ‘My life is a little harder than it used to be,’" Munger said at the event, which was moderated by CNBC’s Becky Quick. "At a certain place you’ve got to say to the people, ‘Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.’"
During the '08 campaign (still a Republican back then, I'm a Democrat today), I recall McCain's idiocy in "suspending" his campaign for "the good of the country", just so that he can push for the TARP bailout. The media chorus at the time was that only the crazies were opposed to TARP but thank goodness we supposedly had cooler heads in the Senate who were willing to pass bank the bailout.
I remember when the House voted against TARP. You had legislators from the Congressional Black Caucus and staunch conservatives on TV together proclaiming their vote as a triumph for Democracy. Of course, there was a lot of arm-twisting, and those "crazies" in the House were whipped into voting for the right way a few days later.
I think that my belief in the system died back in 2008 when TARP was voted in. In spite of the fact that 80% of the country was opposed to TARP, we were told to shut up because our overlords knew what was best for us. If we are as a society going to tell the peasants and the little people that they should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, that the same type of tough love should apply to businesses when they fail.
I happen to think that irresponsible homeowners who treated their house like an ATM machine should not get bailed out, just like those irresponsible banks that aided and abetted the housing bubble. Bailouts just encourage bad financial decisions. If we let the banks fail, the more responsible ones would have taken over. And as with housing, if prices drop, then we can provide affordable housing to renters.
Charles Munger has chutzpah, to say the least.
P.S.: Whenever the media touts something as "bipartisan" I always get a sick feeling as if I'm about to get arse-raped.