Studying economics is not a good preparation for dealing with it.

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The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right. I take the opposite position. I assume that markets are always wrong.

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As an anonymous participant in financial markets, I never had to weigh the social consequences of my actions... I felt justified in ignoring them on the grounds that I was playing by the rules.

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Financial markets... resent any kind of government interference but they hold a belief deep down that if conditions get really rough the authorities will step in.

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The stock market adopts a thesis and tests it; when it fails, as it usually does, it tries out another... that is what produces market fluctuations.

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It's not whether you are right or wrong that's important, but how much money you make when you're right and how much you lose when you're wrong.

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If risky investments turn out poorly — as risky investments are wont to do on occasion — governments or international financial institutions should not endeavor to shield investors from loss. This is as it should be, since investors earn premiums to compensate for the risks of such investments.

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Private capital markets are the fundamental building block of the capitalist system of resource allocation across activities and over time. Such markets can function properly only if investors bear the costs of their bad decisions and bad luck and reap the benefits of their good decisions and good luck.

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Professionals and speculators are not primarily concerned with making superior long-term forecasts but with foreseeing changes in the conventional basis of valuation a short time ahead of the general public.

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Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on the steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on the whirl-pool of speculation.

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