“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.”
“I mean, do you believe in God or what? “ “Not the name-brand God they serve here.” Tim said. “That old guy with the beard, granting wishes out of the clouds to whoever says the most rosaries. That’s bullshit. I believe in everything.”
“Bailing out people who made ill-advised mortgages makes no more sense that bailing out people who lost their life savings in Las Vegas casinos.”
“You think when you wake up in the mornin yesterday dont count. But yesterday is all that does count. What else is there? Your life is made out of the days it's made out of. Nothin else. You might think you could run away and change your name and I dont know what all. Start over. And then one mornin you wake up and look at the ceilin and guess who's layin there?”
“But it does make me sad that we've forgotten our names. Out of everything, this seems to me the most tragic. I miss my own and I mourn for everyone else's, because I'd like to love them, but I don't know who they are.”
“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.”