Charlie Munger nails it again: The U.S. Economy is F***ed

I'm a huge fan of Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet's lifetime business partner. I've written previously about his distillation of behavioral psychology principles for business, but in today's Slate piece he covers a much bigger topic: where the U.S. economy went wrong and how unlikely it is (given the dominant influence of monied interests on politics) that's it's going to get right again without sweeping change.

My favorite bit: equating the current defense of the financial industry with the past defense of the tobacco industry - both cause cancer, one of the body and the other of the body politic:

"Of course, the most effective political opposition to change came from the gambling casinos themselves. This was not surprising, as at least one casino was located in each legislative district. The casinos resented being compared with cancer when they saw themselves as part of a long-established industry that provided harmless pleasure while improving the thinking skills of its customers."

Read it and weep, then send a copy to your congressmen and senators, get involved and work for change at whatever level you can. We can do this, but it's going to get ugly before it gets better...