Just finished "PANIC!", a collection of financial news pieces edited by former stock trader and author Michael Lewis. I was a little disappointed by the fact that Lewis didn't write the book, but I did enjoy it. Overall, there were a couple of choice quotes that were not funny at the time, but are deeply ironic now.
"It was insanity. This thing was getting out of control."
-Bernie Madoff, talking about Internet stock mania in 2000, from Lewis' book "The New New Thing".
Apparently, Madoff was so scarred by the swings in stock valuations he decided to stop trading stocks altogether and instead form a Ponzi scheme and pretend to sell them.
I see his point-that is MUCH easier.
"We are not going to see the price of single-family homes fall. It ain't going to happen."
-Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, quoted in the New York Times, 2002.
Nope. Not for six more years, anyway.
Madoff managed to achieve the second-largest ponzi scheme in history.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it something?
ReplyDeleteWe have a running joke at my workplace- "I could call the help desk for an answer...or I could just make one up-it would be faster and just as likely to be right."
It's so simple you wonder why a hundred people don't try it.