?Our clients used to think in weeks and days. Today, it?s not even hours-- they think in minutes,? said John Schutz of Wells Fargo, the largest financial advisor in Minnesota, with $1.2 billion in assets.
?I figured it was just as easy to hear ?no? from someone who?s wealthy as from someone who is not wealthy,? said Steve Lockshin of Convergent Wealth, the largest independent financial advisor in California, with $10.5 billion in assets.
?Interest rates are to investments what gravity is to physics,? said Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.
?China thinks strategically. We think reactively,? said Stephen Roach, former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, and my friend and former mentor.
?One must marvel at where the stock market is in relation to the rest of our world. With the economy in relation to the politics, it?s not a happy time. If you look at how they were viewing Obama just before the election, we?ve just walked through the raindrops in regards to the stock market with the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling crisis, and all sorts of other issues that were plaguing the market,?
said legendary hedge fund manager and chairman of Wisdom Tree Investments, Michael Steinhardt.
?When former president, Jimmy Carter, once addressed a graduating class in Japan, they suddenly broke out into wild laughter. He later insisted that the interpreter tell him what he said. After much prodding, he confessed ?I said the president has just told a joke, and you must laugh.?
'Total credit market debt in the world has gone from $80 trillion to $200 trillion in the last ten years, an 11% annual rate, while GDP has grown by 4%. This can't continue. It's a simple matter of arithmetic,' said Kyle Bass, of hedge fund Hayman Partners.
?Over the long term, all of the fiat currencies of the world are involved in a competitive devaluation. The structural stresses in most of the western economies are such that centrals banks will attempt to continue to substitute liquidity for solvency.? said Rick Rule, chairman of Sprott US Holdings, a precious metals specialist.
?Changes in consumption stemming from per capita income rises from $1,000 a year to $5,000, as you are seeing in India, or $5,000 to $10,000, as you are seeing in China, is a very different kind of consumption. It is much more commodities heavy, it is food heavy, it draws a lot more on water supplies,? said Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, an New York Based think tank.
?There is no such thing as a ?Norm? anymore,? said Irwin Simon, CEO of Hain Celestial.
