"Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you’re a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939," the Berkshire vice chairman said, "but I think civilized people don’t buy gold, they invest in productive businesses."

Munger, 88, said he loves Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio of such businesses, which includes, among many others, the Burlington Northern railroad, specialty chemicals firm Lubrizol and Geico insurance.

"We just have a wonderful portfolio in business, if you average them out," Munger said. "By and large they're doing productive, useful work. It’s not outsmarting the computer systems in the trading markets."