Category: Quote of the Week

“These derivatives are the root of the credit crunch. Why? Unlike all other property paper, derivatives are not required by law to be recorded, continually tracked and tied to the assets they represent. Nobody knows precisely how many there are, where they are, and who is finally accountable for them. Thus, there is widespread fear that potential borrowers and recipients of capital with too many nonperforming derivatives will be unable to repay their loans. As trust in property paper breaks down it sets off a chain reaction, paralyzing credit and investment, which shrinks transactions and leads to a catastrophic drop …

“Know how to use them so well, that you are able defend yourself at two a.m. as you are at two p.m.”- Octavia E. Butler Parable of the Sower

“It is the conservative laissez- fairist, the man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, ‘Limit yourself’; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian.” – Murray Rothbard

"It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." – President Barack Hussein Obama, describing conservative rural residents, in a presidential campaign fundraising speech in Pennsylvania, April 6, 2008

And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day [that] the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: And he said, The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, The God of my rock; in him will I trust: [he is] my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence. I will call on the LORD, [who is] worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from …

"Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts inevitably bring about right results" – James Allen

“I got things under control, that’s why people call me an extremist. I’m autonomous. I understand that I declare my independence every day.” – Ted Nugent

“How come when I put my AmEx bill on my VISA, it’s stupid, but when the government does it, it’s stimulus?” – Tamara K., View From The Porch Blog

"Morals—all correct moral rules—derive from the instinct to survive; moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level…. Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics—you name it—is nonsense. Correct morals arise from knowing what Man is—not what do-gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be." – Robert A Heinlein, Starship Troopers 1959

“Pangloss is admired, and Cassandra is despised and ignored. But as the Trojans were to learn to their sorrow, Cassandra was right, and had she been heeded, the toil of appropriate preparation for the coming adversity would have been insignificant measured against the devastation that followed a brief season of blissful and ignorant optimism.” – Ernest Partridge: Perilous Optimism

“Money is a mirror of civilization. Throughout history, whenever we find good, reliable noninflated money, we almost always find a strong, healthy civilization. Whenever we find unreliable, inflated money, we almost always find a civilization in decay.” – Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury, Karl Hess, Kathryn Daniels, and Jane A. Williams

“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say on the Lord." – Psalm 27:14

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” – Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, Stockdale’s Paradox

"It is good to keep in mind that the screw that tightens the mechanism is also the one that loosens it." – From a Japanese air rifle manual, circa 1971

“No one was psychologically prepared for hard times when they hit, because, according to the tenets of positive thinking, even to think of trouble is to bring it on. Americans did not start out as deluded optimists. The original ethos, at least of white Protestant settlers and their descendants, was a grim Calvinism that offered wealth only through hard work and savings, and even then made no promises at all. You might work hard and still fail; you certainly wouldn’t get anywhere by adjusting your attitude or dreamily ‘visualizing’ success.” – Barbara Ehrenreich