(Bloomberg) Charles Munger, the 87-year-old billionaire, used his farewell conference to criticize Wall Street, reflect on investing and raising children, and treat a fawning audience to his gratitude and familiar jibes.

"You all need a new cult hero," Munger said on July 1 at the conference, called 'A Morning with Charlie," in Pasadena, California. "I'm doing you a favor" by ending the annual question-and-answer sessions with investors, he said.

Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., began the three-hour meeting with observations on the deficiencies of bankers, the rise of China and the record of George W. Bush. He criticized decisions at Bank of America Corp., praised Costco Wholesale Corp.'s pricing policies and said he hopes he's dead before Berkshire pays a dividend.

"I think that some of you will live to see a Berkshire dividend but I hope I don't," Munger said. Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, which uses earnings to fund acquisitions and stock picks, has said it will consider a payout when managers are no longer able to find investments for its profits.

Munger gained a following among investors as the outspoken business partner of Warren Buffett, Berkshire's chairman and largest shareholder. He speaks in front of tens of thousands of people at Berkshire's annual meetings in Omaha, where his role on stage is the caustic foil to a courtly Buffett. Hundreds of people, whom Munger called "groupies," would show up at the Pasadena events to see him speak without Buffett.

'Peculiar People'

"You people aren't normal," Munger told the audience last week. "It's only peculiar people like you that I want to impress."

Investment bankers and mortgage issuers were afflicted with "insanity, megalomania and evil" when they helped inflate the pre-2008 housing bubble, Munger said. He said U.S. unemployment must be faced with "gumption" -- which he called one of his favorite words -- because people in China, Japan and other Asian countries have demonstrated talent at production and innovation.

"This brutality of capitalistic competition is really something," Munger said. "I kind of like seeing the Chinese rise after so many years being down."

Bank of America, which has lost more than three-quarters of its stock value since 2006, was guided by decision-making that Munger called "a disgrace." Wells Fargo & Co., which counts Berkshire as its biggest shareholder, was better than most big banks at "avoiding the common stupidities," Munger said. Berkshire divested a three-year holding of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America last year.

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