?Banks have turned into gigantic gambling institutions. You never know what you own. I wouldn't touch them if you pointed a gun to my head,? said legendary hedge fund manager Bill Fleckenstein on Hedge Fund Radio.
?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.
?You can?t keep on firing people. We?ve gotten so mean and so lean that you naturally get to the point where there are fewer people to let go,? said Steve Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities.
?I looked all over the basement when I was at the White House, and there is no big lever you can throw to make things good again,? said Austin Goolsby, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.
?The journey is the reward,? said the late Apple founder, Steve Jobs.
?Apple will never be a consumer products company,? said John Sculley, the Apple CEO who fired Steve Jobs in 1985. Today Apple is the world?s largest and most profitable consumer products company.
