It is interesting to go back and watch this after not watching it for a couple of years. I guess because I've grown and learned different things in between watching it then and now, I noticed and got different things from it than I remember when I first saw it. And with hindsight about how the world has unfolded since this conversation, Munger's prescience shines through once again.
One other thing that got my attention more than before were his comments on solar. Richard Duncan, in his latest book, also talks about solar and how a massive government initiative to harnessing this cheap and nearly limitless source of energy would yield benefits way in excess of its costs, and the return on the capital spent on a project like this (when the government can borrow at such low rates) could have the potential to completely solve the debt problem, as compared to the way the government is currently spending a lot of money (i.e. on low to no return projects.....a la Japan). Though Munger talks about it in a couple of places, here was one quote, which happened around the 33-minute mark: “The idea of rapidly going to the sun, basically, and creating a vast infrastructure that will do it is a thoroughly sound idea. And we now know how to do everything we need to know how to do. And I think the country would get behind it if people had the sense to concentrate on something large and important and sensible.”
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