“I do not believe in the power of brand names or in emulatingany of the brand name investors out there. It is a fact that all—ifnot at least most—of the biggest names in American finance andindustry out there today have proven after the 2008 crisis to be someof the most incompetent people there are. Starting with the untouchableGoldman Sachs, who was bailed out by over $5 billion fromWarren Buffett, to AIG and Citibank, who were bailed out by thehundreds of billions of dollars from the Troubled Asset Relief Program(TARP), having a name and a history does not make you the brightestand the best. All it takes is one nincompoop with a huge ego or aboard of directors who think they are smarter than everyone else todestroy what has taken generations to build.”

“Bankruptcy cleans out the system. What’s wrong with that? SouthKorea went through this in the late 1990s. They didn’t have anyoneto bail them out, and they had to go through the pain. Sweden didit in the early 1990s. Mexico did it. Russia did it. The list goes onand on. Competent people take over the assets from incompetentpeople and rebuild from a solid base. Business has always been survivalof the fittest and Darwinism at its best. After all, this is what capitalismis all about.”

“I do not believe in supporting bailouts without strongramifications. It is a fool’s fantasy to think we can live in a globallyconnected economy and never have a situation arise where the governmentprudently steps in to prevent a failure that might lead tocatastrophic ramifications. In most cases, I believe it would be muchbetter to let bailed-out companies fail when they have mismanagedthemselves, rather than waste taxpayer money propping up greedyidiots who are trying to salvage their own bonuses; however, thereare exceptions to almost every rule. The wiser course would be topenalize the CEO or board of directors who drove the companyto the brink of failure. The most obvious punishment would be theelimination of any “golden parachutes” or bonuses for the executiveand seizure of all company-derived assets, including any attempts tohide company assets in the spouse’s name. When C-level executivescome to the realization that managing a company is not a game andthat there are serious consequences for their actions, we will see fewerinstances of requests for bailouts.”

“When people tell you that thisvenerable firm or private investor invested X millions of dollars inthat entity and that it is a good investment, be skeptical and stay opento the option of running as far as you can in the opposite direction.We have all seen the biggest names on Wall Street along with thelargest sovereign wealth funds on the planet make the dumbest investmentsever made. Do your due diligence; ask the right questions, andmost important, check out the character of the people involved unlessyou want to end up being prey to another master of the universe àla Bernie Madoff.”

“People succeed or fail on the merits in America, not on who theyknow or whose reelection campaign they supported. This absolutelyAmerican principle must be reestablished and permanently fortified.There can be no more “too big to fail.” If you are reckless, greedy,and arrogant, the American taxpayer should not bail you out.”

“Almost every Fed chairman in the past 60 years has manipulatedinterest rates to brighten the economic outlook for incumbent presidentsor newly elected presidents who won by large margins. Thepurchasing power of the U.S. dollar has fallen 94 percent in the past100 years. The only way you can create inflation is by creating moremoney that is backed by the same reserve assets; the Fed is the onlyentity that can create more money. Ben Bernanke’s quantitative easing(QE) programs have pumped billions of unfunded dollars into theeconomy, thereby setting us up for massive inflation in the very nearfuture. If this isn’t a form of financial terrorism, it is incompetence of the highest order.”

“Letting the banks go bust instead of perpetually bailing them out is the right way to go.Iceland Did It Right; All others are doing it wrong.”