Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) (BRK-B) had its annual shareholders meeting over the weekend, with some definite memorable quotes, especially from Warren Buffett’s business partner, Charlie Munger. Here are a few that High10 Media’s Lauren Seewald compiled:

• “Of course I hate the Bitcoin success and I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists… Nor do I like shuffling out a few extra billions and billions and billions of dollars to somebody who just invented a new financial product out of thin air. So I think I should say modestly that I think the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization, and I’ll leave the criticism to others.”
• “Everything boomed up so high and interest rates are so low. What’s going to happen is the millennial generation is going to have a hell of a time getting rich compared to our generation. And so the difference between the rich and the poor in the generation that’s rising is going to be a lot less.”
• “I personally would not like to see our present giants brought down to some low level by some anti-competitive reasonings… I think they’re a credit to the Americans, credit to our civilization.”
• “It’s just god-awful that something like [Robinhood] would draw investments from civilized men and decent citizens. It’s deeply wrong. We don’t want to make our money selling things that are bad for people. But we’ve got the states doing it with the lottery… That’s one of the things that’s wrong with it. It’s getting respectable to do these things. The states are just as bad as Robinhood… The states in America replaced the mafia as the proprietor of the numbers game… They pushed the mafia aside and said, that’s our business, not yours. It doesn’t make me proud of my government.”

Buffett himself had more than one interesting soundbite as well. But out of the two, Munger seemed to be more direct.

So let me take my cues from him and be direct as well.

His rich versus poor statements are interesting in light of his attacks on Bitcoin and Robinhood. While I have my own opinions on both of those as well – some of which I’ve shared before and some of which isn’t entirely flattering – the truth is these resources have helped make more money for many a “little guy” so far – a state of existence Munger is VERY far removed from today.

Yes, Bitcoin and Robinhood have been and can be used for bad. But so has and no doubt will the fiat currency we’re used to relying on. Likewise, yes, cryptocurrency could crash and burn completely tomorrow. But it’s building up a pretty decent track record so far of proving the naysayers wrong.

Obviously, Munger is a very intelligent man. So I’m not saying to discount his thoughts on the matter.

Only, as I always tell you when it comes to taking the advice I dish out daily, you have to do your own research. Know what’s right for you in your personal situation, then act on it as best as you can.

The World According to REITs

Earnings season is always an interesting time, with some days being so filled with reports and releases that it’s hard to keep up… and other ones being so slow, individual investors suddenly have more than enough time on their hands to analyze what happened the day before.

Friday was one of the latter, leaving the REITBeat with only a few updates to offer, including these three:

1. Prologis (PLD) voted to elect Hamid R. Moghadam as chairman of the board, and Cristina G. Bita, George L. Fotiades, Lydia H. Kennard, Irving F. Lyons III, Avid Modjtabai, David P. O’Connor, Olivier Piani, Jeffrey L. Skelton, Carl B. Webb, and William D. Zollars as directors.
2. Retail Opportunity Investments (ROIC) saw S&P affirm its BBB- issuer credit and issuer level ratings, complete with a revised outlook from negative to stable.
3. Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI) closed a new four-year, $1.45 billion, senior unsecured revolving credit facility; while its operating partnership, OHI Healthcare Properties, began one of the same lengths for $50 million.

That’s our slow-day news to start out the week, topped off with a summary of last week’s activity that was anything but slow for Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT). The penny REIT found some obvious favor to close out the month of April, as shown below.

(Source: The Daily REITBeat)