Brian Belski: Bull market has another 10 years to run

We’ve been on record since the 4th quarter of 2008 saying that U.S. stocks were entering a 15 to 20 year bull secular bull market. While people have come around to being more bullish I don’t think people believe we have another 10 years left.

There remains a tremendous amount of fear with respect to my industry [financials].  Investors don’t trust us, regulators are tough. All of that will normalize over the next several years. That is excessively bullish for the market.

~ Brian Belski, GMO Capital Markets, "Bull markets don’t die of old age, why Dow 44,000 is coming," interview with Jeff Macke on Yahoo!Finance, June 24, 2014

Wilbur Ross on the sovereign debt bubble

I've felt for some time that the ultimate bubble, when we look back a few years from now, is going to be sovereign debt, both U.S. and other, because it's way below any sort of reversion to the mean of interest rates.  If you look at where the U.S. 10-year had averaged over the 10 preceding years, it's around 4 percent. If it reverts back to that level at some point there will be terrible losses in the long-term Treasury market and those will probably be accentuated in other areas of fixed income.

~ Wilbur Ross, as appeared on CNBC, "Sovereign debt the 'ultimate bubble': Wilbur Ross," June 23, 2014

Larry Fink: "The stock market is trading on fundamentals"

The stock market is trading on fundamentals. You’ve had rising earnings. Whether it’s top line or bottom line, you are seeing better earnings across the board.

~ Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO, CNBC interview, June 19, 2014

Bethany McLean on mathematical modeling

Goldman also shook my faith in numbers, and I mean that in a good way. Numbers, especially in a beautifully put together presentation, masquerade as TRUTH. A discounted cash flow analysis seems oh-so-scientific. But many numbers are nothing more than the wobbly assumptions that go into them. There is nothing that will make you understand this better than having a vice president tell you to change the discount rate in that discounted cash flow analysis because he wants to see a different result. “Garbage in, garbage out,” I heard at Goldman. So true.

~ Bethany McLean, "My Goldman Sachs Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (And Why I'm Grateful)," February 19, 2014

Bethany McLean on making excuses

[A]t the end of the day, no one actually cares why you got it wrong. All that matters is that it’s wrong. And if you don’t think in terms of excuses, you’re less likely to make a mistake in the first place.

~ Bethany McLean, "My Goldman Sachs Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (And Why I'm Grateful)," February 19, 2014

Ice Cube on private charity vs. government welfare

I'm not really into the political game.  As far as paying politicians and stuff like that, I'm into "You do your job and I'll do mine."  Politicians not going to do more with my money than I Can to help whatever cause or whatever situation I want to help.

~ Ice Cube, "10 Questions," Time, June 23, 2014

BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda: "We have just put on better tires"

We have sharply increased the power of our engine through our quantitative easing program, and we have just put on better tires to make the most of this engine."

~ Haruhiko Kuroda, Bank of Japan government, news conference announcing further easing, February 18, 2014