In the 1920s you could buy stocks on margin. You could put 10 percent down and borrow the rest against your stocks. Ron Chernow More Quotes by Ron Chernow More Quotes From Ron Chernow One of the very nice things about investing in the stock market is that you learn about all different aspects of the economy. It's your window into a very large world. Ron Chernow nice different world Mutual funds have historically offered safety and diversification. And they spare you the responsibility of picking individual stocks. Ron Chernow mutual-fund safety responsibility Unless you devote an enormous amount of time to anticipating the future, you won't have any future. Ron Chernow anticipating-the-future amount enormous Early on, New York already had a national and even international identity. Ron Chernow national-identity identity new-york Washington once advised his adopted grandson that where there is no occasion for expressing an opinion, it is best to be silent. For there is nothing more certain than that it is at all times more easy to make enemies than friends. Ron Chernow silent opinion enemy Stock market corrections, although painful at the time, are actually a very healthy part of the whole mechanism, because there are always speculative excesses that develop, particularly during the long bull market. Ron Chernow excess healthy long The richly cadenced prose is hypnotic, the research prodigious, the analysis acute, the mood spellbinding, and the cast of characters mythic in scale. I cannot conceive of a better book about Capitol Hill. An unforgettable, epic achievement in the art of biography. Ron Chernow character book art A prudent silence will frequently be taken for wisdom and a sentence or two cautiously thrown in will sometimes gain the palm of knowledge, while a man well informed but indiscreet and unreserved will not uncommonly talk himself out of all consideration and weight. (Alexander Hamilton's 'thesis on discretion' written to his son James shortly before his fatal duel with Burr.) Ron Chernow taken men son I'm a biographer; I can live with a little hyperbole. Ron Chernow hyperbole biographers littles That strategy of buy and hold, which is the sound and sensible one for the individual, can have very dangerous and perverse effects for the market as a whole. Ron Chernow strategy individual sound You don't want too much fear in a market, because people will be blinded to some very good buying opportunities. You don't want too much complacency because people will be blinded to some risk. Ron Chernow risk opportunity people Because of the love affair between the American public and the stock market, it is possible for entrepreneurs, technological visionaries and inventors of every sort to get financing. Ron Chernow affair visionaries entrepreneur Hamilton had one of those extraordinary 18th-century minds that touched on virtually every major topic of the day. Ron Chernow topics century mind I don't think that a mutual fund that invests exclusively in biotech start-ups or invests exclusively in companies in Thailand offers any great safety or diversification. Ron Chernow thailand safety thinking I have developed a very strong partiality for the dead: they don't talk back, they don't sue, and they don't have angry relatives. Ron Chernow relative angry strong Any bull market covers a multitude of sins, so there may be all sorts of problems with the current system that we won't see until the bear market comes. Ron Chernow bulls bears may A lot of the money in the stock market is really our national retirement plan, for better or worse. Ron Chernow plans retirement The founding fathers were not only brilliant, they were system builders and systematic thinkers. They came up with comprehensive plans and visions. Ron Chernow systematic vision father We really haven't had very much experience with people funding their retirement out of the stock market, and we don't know, frankly, how it would work under every scenario. Ron Chernow funding retirement people There is a kind of fear, approaching a panic, that's spreading through the Baby Boom Generation, which has suddenly discovered that it will have to provide for its own retirement. Ron Chernow generations retirement baby
