Joe Granville on the expected soft landing (2000)

I am pretty certain that Alan Greenspan would never have agreed to another four-year term if he feared a stock market collapse during his tenure. At least over the next nine months we can relax and expect a soft landing and no recession. Bad news will be out and good news will be in.

~ Joe Granville, The Granville Market Letter, July 13, 2000

(Source: Barron's, July 24, 2000, p. 33)

Kurt Richebacher on the expected soft landing (2000)

Adhering to the famous postulate of Austrian theory that the length and severity of recessions or depressions depend critically on the magnitude of the dislocations and imbalances that have accumulated in the economy during the preceding boom, we take it for granted that a hard, even a very hard, landing is absolutely inevitable for the U.S. economy.

~ Kurt Richebacher, The Richebacher Letter, July, 2000

(Source: Barron's, July 24, 2000, p. 33)

Doug MacKay on investing in dot-com equipment providers (2000)

I guess if I had been in business in northern California during the 1860s, I would have been selling pots and pans and digging tools, rather than panning for gold.

We didn't want to worry about which of the dot.coms would strike gold. But we were sure that their suppliers like Cisco, Sun and Juniper would prosper.

~ Doug MacKay, co-manager of $1.46 billion Red Oak Technology Select Stock Fund, "Cornerstones; Doug MacKay likes brick-and-mortar companies, New Economy style," Barron's, August 14, 2000

(Red Oak Technology Select lost 90% of its value over the ensuing two years. MacKay is no longer at the helm and assets were $69 million as of June 30, 2011.)

Warren Buffett on the debt ceiling

It doesn't really make any sense. The way to limit debt is to take in revenues in relation to your expenditures, and to have this artificial limit, which always gets raised in the end, disrupt the activities in an important way in Congress periodically, is a waste of Congress's time.

~Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, CNBC interview, July 18, 2011

Larry Summers on how to save the eurozone

US policymakers were applauded for about 12 hours for their willingness to let Lehman go bankrupt. The adverse consequences of the shattering effect that had on confidence are still being felt now. The European Central Bank is right in its concern that punishing creditors for the sake of teaching lessons or building political support is reckless in a system that depends on confidence.

There must be a clear commitment that, whatever else happens, no big financial institution in any country will be allowed to fail. The most serious financial breakdowns – in Indonesia in 1997, Russia in 1998, and the US in 2008 – came when authorities allowed doubt over the basic functioning of the financial system. This responsibility should rest with the ECB, with the requisite political support.

~Larry Summers, former US Treasury Secretary and former Director of the National Economic Council, "How to Save the Eurozone", Financial Times, July 18, 2011

Ludwig Lachmann on the economic function of the entrepreneur

We are living in a world of unexpected change; hence capital combinations . . . will be ever changing, will be dissolved and reformed. In this activity, we find the real function of the entrepreneur.

~Ludwig Lachmann, German-born Austrian economist, 1956

Ludwig von Mises on entrepreneurs as visionaries

What distinguishes the successful entrepreneur and promoter from other people is precisely the fact that he does not let himself be guided by what was and is, but arranges his affairs on the ground of his opinion about the future.  He sees the past and the present as other people do; but he judges the future in a different way.

~ Ludwig von Mises, Austrian economist, Human Action, p. 585, 1949