Debt is always repaid, either by the borrower or by the lender.

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

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

Growth at an exceptional rate is a red flag in banking. It is hard enough to manage an ordinary bank; to control a sprouting weed is well-nigh impossible. If loans are expanding too quickly, the lending officers have probably been saying 'yes' too frequently.

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

Every debt is ultimately paid, if not by the debtor, then eventually by the creditor.