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

[T]he first bad bank loan was no doubt made around the time of the opening of the first bank.

Credit is money of the mind.

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.

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

It's about bums on seats. If nobody wants to listen to what you are doing, it kind of defeats the purpose really, doesn't it?

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