Joe Kernen calls out Charlie Munger for being ignorant about Bitcoin

CNBC anchor Joe Kernen pushed back against Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger’s latest tirade against cryptocurrency on Thursday.

Specifically, the anchor called out the billionaire’s assessment of Bitcoin while criticizing his lack of knowledge on the subject.

Munger’s last robbery

On Wednesday, Munger appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box where Rebecca Quick asked him to steel the arguments against his anti-crypto position. After a brief pause, Munger refused to do so.

“I don’t think there are good arguments against my position,” he said. “I think those who oppose my position are idiots.

The relevant investor’s “position” was published in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, arguing that the United States should ban cryptocurrency entirely, just as China did. He compared cryptocurrencies to neither commodities nor securities, but rather “gambling contracts”.

In Wednesday’s interview, he had another name for the asset class: “cryptofree.”

“Sometimes I call it crypto crappo, and sometimes I call it crypto shit,” he continued. “It’s just ridiculous that anyone would buy these things.”

In the middle of crypto’s infectious meltdown in the summer of 2022, Munger the lame crypto as an “open sewer” of evil actors, while claiming that their existence “undermines the national currencies of the world.” During this week’s interview, he reiterated his defense of fiat currencies.

“You can hardly think of anything on earth that has done more good for humanity than national currencies,” he said. “If someone says I’m going to create something to replace this national currency… that’s stupid.

Munger went on to call cryptocurrencies “worthless”, “no good”, “crazy” and “massively stupid”, adding that it has been “anti-social” and that intelligent people should “completely avoid it”.

Kernen’s answer

The next day, Joe Kernen so that Munger’s comments were a basic “pedestrian” view of crypto that he’s been hearing from people completely ignorant of the subject for the past “20 years” (even though Bitcoin is now only 14 years old).

“I don’t think he’s read the first page of the Bitcoin Standard, or whatever book you want to go to,” he said.

The Bitcoin Standard, written by Saifedean Ammous, is a book that examines the historical development of currency around the world, arguing that Bitcoin will eventually emerge as the world’s currency of choice. It presents money as something that naturally arises in the free market, rather than something that needs a national government to be its issuer.