Michael Lewis Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Even as late as the summer of 2006, as home prices began to fall, it took a certain kind of person to see the ugly facts and react to them-to discern, in the profile of the beautiful young lady, the face of an old witch.

  Michael Lewis

  Beautiful, Summer, Fall

  Michael Lewis (2015). “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (movie tie-in)”, p.122, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The model used by Wall Street to price trillions of dollar's worth of derivatives thought of the financial world as an orderly, continuous process. But the world was not continuous; it changed discontinuously, and often by accident.

  Michael Lewis

  Wall, World, Derivatives

  "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine". Book by Michael Lewis, March 15, 2010.

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• The only thing history teaches us, a wise man once said, is that history doesn’t teach us anything.

  Michael Lewis

  Wise, Men, Said

  Michael Lewis (2010). “Liar's Poker”, p.93, W. W. Norton & Company

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• He was ignorant, but a lot of people mistook ignorance for stupidity, and knowingness for intelligence.

  Michael Lewis

  Ignorance, People, Stupidity

  Michael Lewis (2007). “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game”, p.175, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Girls tend to attribute their failures to factors such as lack of ability, while boys tend to attribute failure to specific factors, including teachers' attitudes. Moreover, girls avoid situations in which failure is likely, whereas boys approach such situations as a challenge, indicating that failure differentially affects self-esteem.

  Michael Lewis

  Girl, Teacher, Attitude

  Michael Lewis (1995). “Shame: The Exposed Self”, p.106, Simon and Schuster

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• One absolutely cannot tell, by watching, the difference between a .300 hitter and a .275 hitter. The difference is one hit every two weeks.

  Michael Lewis

  Two, Differences, Week

  Michael Lewis (2004). “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”, p.68, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The longer-term the option, the sillier the results generated by the Black-Scholes option pricing model, and the greater the opportunity for people who didn't use it.

  Michael Lewis

  Opportunity, People, Black

  Michael Lewis (2015). “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (movie tie-in)”, p.136, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The big Wall Street firms, seemingly so shrewd and self-interested, had somehow become the dumb money. The people who ran them did not understand their own businesses, and their regulators obviously knew even less.

  Michael Lewis

  Wall, Self, People

  Michael Lewis (2015). “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (movie tie-in)”, p.254, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The Irish turned in on themselves and bid up their own land prices in the most extraordinary ways... The Irish people stepped in and guaranteed the banks, and committed to repay sums they can't afford to repay, and essentially committed themselves to generations of suffering.

  Michael Lewis

  Land, People, Suffering

  "Michael Lewis’ 'Boomerang': 'Money Thrown Out in Hope, Coming Back in Anger'". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. October 21, 2011.

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• I'd stumbled into a job at Salomon Brothers in 1985, and stumbled out, richer, in 1988, and even though I wrote a book about the experience, the whole thing still strikes me me as totally preposterous-which is one reason the money was so easy to walk away from.

  Michael Lewis

  Brother, Jobs, Book

  Michael Lewis (2015). “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (movie tie-in)”, p.11, W. W. Norton & Company

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• People were paid lots of money to make stupid decisions, people in big banks, and when people are paid to be stupid they'll be stupid. The question was, did they know they were being stupid or were they just stupid? I think you need to take it on a case by case basis. There was some sinister activity, but I think by and by it was people being incentivised to do the wrong thing.

  Michael Lewis

  Stupid, Thinking, People

  "The Big Short: author Michael Lewis on 'betting on Armageddon' during the global financial crisis; making of star-studded new film". Interview with Hayden Cooper, www.abc.net.au. January 14, 2016.

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• The incentive for the outsider is to attack the system right up to the moment he is co-opted by it. The incentive for the insider -and this took some getting used to- is to allow yourself to be attacked, and then co-opt your most ferocious attackers, and their best ideas. The effect on the system as a whole is to make it more stable, because everyone winds up working on its behalf.

  Michael Lewis

  Wind, Ideas, Incentives

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• The United States stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism, is rigged.

  Michael Lewis

  United States, Capitalism, Iconic

  "Is the U.S. stock market rigged?". "60 Minutes" with Steve Kroft, www.cbsnews.com. March 30, 2014.

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• The thing I'm most afraid of is what happens when these people who voted for Donald Trump realize he's not going to do anything for them and that he's not an antidote to what ails them. His whole movement runs on anger, and if it doesn't have anger, it doesn't go anywhere.

  Michael Lewis

  Running, People, Movement

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• The men on the trading floor may not have been to school, but they have Ph.D.’s in man’s ignorance.

  Michael Lewis

  School, Ignorance, Men

  Michael Lewis (2014). “Liar's Poker (25th Anniversary Edition): Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street (25th Anniversary Edition)”, p.40, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The Red Sox are a curious thing because so much here is media driven. You can't go fire half your scouts here because they are all friends with the local reporters. Your life is going to hell in the papers.

  Michael Lewis

  Fire, Media, Half

  "Michael Lewis on Moneyball". Interview with Robert Birnbaum, www.identitytheory.com. June 16, 2003.

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• Yet another hedge fund manager explained Icelandic banking to me this way: you have a dog, and I have a cat. We agree that each is worth a billion dollars. You sell me the dog for a billion, and I sell you the cat for a billion. Now we are no longer pet owners but Icelandic banks, with a billion dollars in new assets.

  Michael Lewis

  Dog, Cat, Pet

  "Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World". Book by Michael Lewis, 2011.

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• Every form of strength is also a form of weakness,” he once wrote. “Pretty girls tend to become insufferable because, being pretty, their faults are too much tolerated. Possessions entrap men, and wealth paralyzes them. I learned to write because I am one of those people who somehow cannot manage the common communications of smiles and gestures, but must use words to get across things that other people would never need to say.

  Michael Lewis

  Girl, Communication, Writing

  Michael Lewis (2004). “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”, p.65, W. W. Norton & Company

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• In Bakersfield, California, a Mexican strawberry picker with an income of $14,000 and no English was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $724,000.

  Michael Lewis

  California, Mexican, House

  Michael Lewis (2015). “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (movie tie-in)”, p.111, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The idea that it's smart to allow Wall Street firms, with this "too big to fail" imprimatur, to become hedge funds again - it's unconscionable. You're essentially saying we're going to take some elites in our society and let them roll the bones in the marketplace, and if it works out they get rich, and if it doesn't work out the taxpayer comes in again. That seems absolutely crazy to me. That seems to be where they're headed. I mean, maybe they're not and I'm wrong. Maybe they'll do sensible things. It's hard to know! There doesn't seem to be a plan.

  Michael Lewis

  Wall, Crazy, Smart

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• Baseball has so much history and tradition. You can respect it, or you can exploit it for profit, but it's still being made all over the place, all the time.

  Michael Lewis

  Baseball, Tradition, Made

  Michael Lewis (2004). “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”, p.259, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The institutions at the centre of capitalism are bigger than they've ever been, the pay is much greater, the ability of society to get its arms around it is much less. The political clout of the financial class is unbelievable. I'd say the story is darker than when I was there. When I was there it felt like a comedy - and now it feels more like a tragedy.

  Michael Lewis

  Class, Political, Tragedy

  "The Big Short: author Michael Lewis on 'betting on Armageddon' during the global financial crisis; making of star-studded new film". Interview with Hayden Cooper, www.abc.net.au. January 14, 2016.

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• You can anchor the mind into answering a question a certain way by giving them a totally unrelated piece of information dropped before.

  Michael Lewis

  Anchors, Giving, Mind

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• The fuses had been lit and could not be extinguished. All that remained was to observe the speed of the spark, and the size of the explosions.

  Michael Lewis

  Sparks, Size, Speed

  Michael Lewis (2015). “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (movie tie-in)”, p.235, W. W. Norton & Company

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• I always find with my stories that the way they start is that I just get so interested in a person that I'm compelled to go back to them over and over until I learn more and more about them, without even quite thinking it's material for a book.

  Michael Lewis

  Book, Thinking, Way

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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