We have been pretending that we?re too big to fail. We?re not too big to fail, You can jump off of a 90 story building and feel fine for the first 89 stories. It?s the sudden stop at the end that tells you you?re not.? said Tom Friedman, New York Times columnist and author of Hot, Flat and Crowded.
?To get rich is glorious!? said Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese general who launched the country?s modern economy in the seventies.
?This isn?t a choice between vanilla and chocolate folks, it?s all rocky road: a few marshmallows to get you excited before the elections, but with a lot of nuts to ruin the aftermath,? said the ever insightful, Bill Gross, at PIMCO.
?Wow! So Goldman Sachs thinks this Tablet is going to sell. I have the perfect Tablet. It is made out of steel and is powered by coal,? said Zachary Karabell, President of River Twice Research
?Those near 10% annualized yields in stocks and bonds are a thing of the past,? said Bill Gross, the managing direct and co-chief investment officer of the Newport Beach, CA based bond giant, PIMCO.
?It amazes me how quickly amnesia sets in,? said Stephen Crawford, former co-president of Morgan Stanley, about the willingness of hedge funds to re-leverage positions in these conditions.
?Isn?t it funny when you walk into an investment firm, and you see all of the financial advisors watching CNBC?that gives me the same feeling of confidence I would have if I walked into the Mayo Clinic or Sloan Kettering and all of the doctors were watching the TV soap opera General Hospital,? said a bond manager friend.
?You are either looking out five days or five years in this market. You?re either a surfer or a yacht. There are no small boats anymore,? said Bob Iaccino, a trader at Your trading room.com.
?There are more beauty parlors than there are beauties,? said the late CBS commentator, Andy Rooney. The same can be said about stock brokers. He also said ?I just wish insignificance had more stature.?
?Now, you are starting to see people front run hedge fund books. People are front running John Paulson?s book. Everybody can see this. People are starting to line up the ducks and ask which hedge funds are going to have redemptions. Which position should I get in front of? Gold is a big problem in that environment. Guess what? The biggest position in the hedge fund community is in gold,? said a leading hedge fund manager.