“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.”

“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 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 strongly believe in the factthat there’s still plenty of money and plenty of private equity capitalavailable around the globe. What are in short supply are great entrepreneursand great teams. A trading opportunity or a company’s biggestchallenge is and has always been the team behind it. There’s enormouschange under way in every facet of the world. Some is technologydriven, some is market driven. All that change creates unprecedentedopportunity, but to take full advantage of such opportunities I mostlyfocus on the team. The right teams and right people behind thoseopportunities always win. There is no secret sauce. Trading and investinghas, in my experience, boiled down to building relationships andexchanging value. It consists of striking the right balance betweenbacking and interacting with the right teams with the right businessmodel at the right time and with the right amount of money.”

“I'd rather look back at my past and say, "I can't believe I did that!" instead of saying "I wish I did that.”

“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.”

“trade and wealth creation is not all upside. It is failure, too.Failure is a necessary component to growth and success. Babe Ruthstruck out 1,330 times but also hit 714 home runs. We need to letfailing entities fail. Only then will successful people turn these enterprisesback into wealth-creating vehicles again. “Too big to fail” is aconcept that perpetuates failure and saps vitality from the rest of thewealth creators to do so.”