I miss my grandparents. They have been dead for 26 years but I still think of them daily and miss them a lot. They lived through the depression; they knew how to make life from scratch. They were self-sufficient in ways that our generation seems unable to imagine. As a young analyst looking for mentors and wise counsel in the money business, I came up empty a lot. It seemed that the wise ones were extremely scarce and almost always at least 75 years old. Multi-decade experience reaching back to the 20's seemed to leave an indelible stamp of insight on a few. The trouble with 80 year olds is they eventually end sooner than we would like.

In April 2006 we lost John Galbraith. Last year Peter Bernstein and John Templeton in 2008. Paul Volcker, Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger are now 80 +. I guess they plan to just drop in their tracks some day; trying to teach right to the end. Trouble is I don't see many younger candidates to take their place to day. This interview with Charlie Munger is refreshingly candid.