Progress is cumulative in science and engineering, but cyclical in finance.

I believe that there is an important kernel of truth in the idea that financial errors recur every other generation.

The art of banking is always to balance the risk of a run with the reward of a profit. The tantalizing factor in the equation is that riskier borrowers pay higher interest rates. Ultimate safety - a strongbox full of currency - would avail the banker nothing. Maximum risk - a portfolio of loans to prospective bankrupts at usurious interest rates - would invite disaster. A good banker safely and profitably treads the middle ground.

The Fed can change how things look, not how things are

The 1980s are to debt what the 1960s were to sex. The 1960s left a hangover. So will the 1980s.

Successful investing is about having people agree with you ... later.

Nothing beats a little cash in a bear market, of course, and the oldest form of cash is gold.