Tech investor Marc Andressen is an elitist

Any time you stand in line at the D.M.V. and look around, you’re like, Oh, my God, I wish all these people were replaced by computer drivers. Ten to 20 years out, driving your car will be viewed as equivalently immoral as smoking cigarettes around other people is today.

~Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist, New York Times interview, July 7, 2011

Barton Biggs is kept up all night worrying about nuclear explosions on Long Island

Yeah, sure, I'm worried about a double-dip. But I'm worried about a nuclear explosion on Long Island, too. You know, there's all kinds of things to be worried about.

~Barton Biggs, founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 4, 2011

Barton Biggs on buying opportunities

I see all kinds of buying opportunities. The problem is, I already own part of them.

After getting banged in the face yesterday I'm not too inclined to step in there again... yet.

~Barton Biggs, founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 4, 2011

(The anchorwoman reported prior to asking Barton Biggs about buying opportunities that he was 50% net long going into the August 4th meltdown and he said he wished he had been about 10-20% net long instead.)

Barton Biggs on saving the euro

It's clear that the Europeans didn't put together a big enough package to solve the problem and now, since they didn't do that, they're going to have to do a much bigger package and maybe even do fiscalization [sic]  of Europe to save the euro.

~Barton Biggs, founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 4, 2011

Barton Biggs on the reason for the big August selloff

There's no question that the original reason was the lack of confidence in the authorities, in other words, the politicians and their ability to deal with this thing. The Europeans did not do a big enough package to solve their sovereign debt issue  and we have had this and we [the US] had this really half-assed compromise where we didn't really deal with the entitlements issue. So, there's been a loss of confidence but I am astounded at how severe the reaction has been.

~Barton Biggs, founder, Traxis Partners, Bloomberg TV, August 4, 2011

Birinyi still bullish after market swoon

It’s like all these times when you second-guess yourself, and you probably wake up a little earlier than you’re used to, and maybe you put an extra finger of scotch in the glass. It’s probably a good idea to have a gut check once in a while, because it makes you review and rethink your process. Our view is that this is still a market of some duration.

~Laszlo Birinyi, president, Birinyi Associates, Bloomberg.com, August 2, 2011

BNP Paribas CEO comments on quarter and EU

This is exactly (Net income 2.13 billion euros vs 2.11 billion euros a year ago) the conservative and sound provisioning that you would expect BNP Paribas to provide for.

Everyone who bets against Greece or against the euro zone, I hope they lose.

BNP Paribas CEO Baudouin Prot, Bloomberg TV, August 2, 2011