Charlie Munger is one of my mentors. Here's a good tidbit from the latest AGM for Berkshire that pretty much sums up the subprime crisis, and the "risk management" field when it comes to complex investments like CDOs and SIVs.
CM: You can see how risk averse Berkshire is. We try to behave in a way so that no rational person will worry about our credit. We also try to behave in a way that if people don’t like our credit we wouldn’t notice for months. That double layering of protection against risk is like breathing. The alternative culture is you call a man a Chief Risk Officer, but often he is man who makes you feel good while you do dumb things. Like the Delphic oracle, a dumb soothsayer, and how can he do dumb things if he has a PHD and can do all the advanced math! You crave a system such that you torture reality to fit a structure that doesn’t match with extreme situations in reality, you feel confident because you compute the risks, but you haven’t -- you have just clobbered up your own head.
Reflections on Value Investing: 2008 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting: Detailed Notes
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