Charlie Munger, the 'Oracle of Pasadena' who was Buffett's second-in-command
Warren Buffett's grandfather for 20 cents an hour during the Great Depression to spending more than four decades as Buffett's second-in-command and foil atop Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Munger's family had advised that he died peacefully on Tuesday morning at a California hospital, said Berkshire.
The union of Munger with Buffett is among the most successful in the history of business; they transformed Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with dozens of business units.
Yet the partnership that formally began when they teamed up in 1975 at Berkshire, where Buffett was chairman and Munger became vice chairman in 1978, thrived despite pronounced differences in style, and even investing.
Known almost universally as Charlie, Munger displayed a blunter form of musings, often in laconic one-liners, on investing, the economy, and the foibles of human nature.
He likened bankers to uncontrollable «heroin addicts,» called the virtual currency Bitcoin «rat poison,» and told CNBC that «gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you're a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939 but I think civilized people don't buy gold. They invest in productive businesses.»
Munger was no less pithy in talking about Berkshire, which made both he and Buffett billionaires and many early shareholders rich as well.
«I think part of the popularity of Berkshire Hathaway is that we look like people who have found a trick,» Munger said in 2010.
«It's not brilliance. It's just avoiding stupidity.»
EXPANDING BUFFETT'S HORIZONS
Munger and Buffett did differ politically, with Munger being a Republican and Buffett a Democrat.
They also differed in personal interests.
For example Munger had a passion for architecture,
