Quotes About Risk

You have a neighbor, who smokes in bed. . . . Suppose he sets fire to his house," I would say later in an interview. "You might say to yourself . . . 'I'm not gonna call the fire department. Let his house burn down. It's fine with me.' But then, of course, what if your house is made of wood? And it's right next door to his house? What if the whole town is made of wood?

Why would a strong bank pay the penalty rate if it didn't have to?

it, we are just going to have to give it a try and see what happens.

As predicted, bankers remained nervous about the potential stigma of borrowing from the Fed.

If they resisted, what damage could a period of legal uncertainty do?

did a poor job of measuring and managing the risks they were taking on.

By that point, of course, subprime lending had already virtually ended.

pushing banks to limit their risks in this area. Though

the investor would be on the hook for 10 percent of the loss.

leaving the buyers who had lent at longer maturities holding the bag.

Part of this game is confidence, and looking clueless and uncertain doesn't help.

Still, the backfire potential during a live, unscripted televised exchange with reporters was significant.

In other words, the world will face the threat of financial crises as long as risk-taking and maturity transformation remain central to finance, and as long as humans remain human. Unfortunately, disaster will always be possible.

But now I thought he risked undermining public confidence in the Fed

firms would do what they could to stay away.

which left it unprepared for the shock of the crisis.

AIG FP's risk was compounded by the difficulty in valuing its highly complex positions,

Unlike most other countries, the United States had required its banks to meet a minimum leverage ratio before the crisis, albeit at a relatively low level.

Investors were unwilling to buy securities they knew little about.

under Dodd's bill we would also have little role in ensuring systemic stability.

I did not want to risk travel delays, so I took the train the evening before.

him Bear was in danger of not having the cash to meet its obligations

Why the support for subprime lending?

the course of the economy is extremely hard to forecast.