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 More Quotes by Ron Chernow More Quotes From Ron Chernow I think those who invest in mutual funds want someone else to do the thinking for them. But the fact that they can move the money around the family of mutual funds just through a phone call lets them feel that they can play tycoons. Ron Chernow phones moving thinking In the 1920s you could buy stocks on margin. You could put 10 percent down and borrow the rest against your stocks. Ron Chernow margins percent down-and The American public historically was really not part of the stock market. Ron Chernow As the bull market goes on, people who take great risks achieve great rewards, seemingly without punishment. It's like crime without punishment or sex without sin. Ron Chernow punishment sex people The securities laws of the 1930s were so important because it forced companies to file registration statements and issue prospectuses, and it remedied the imbalance of information. Ron Chernow tyrants issues law The Great Inflation of the 1970s destroyed faith in paper assets, because if you held a bond, suddenly the bond was worth much less money than it was before. Ron Chernow assets ties paper Mutual fund managers are trapped in this rather deadly vicious circle: the more successful they are, the more money flows into their mutual fund. Then, it is more difficult for them to beat the market averages or even to match their own past performance. Ron Chernow circles successful past What I find very interesting about the mutual funds managers is that here are people who are the new masters of the universe. They're managing billions, yet they're subject to this quiet daily tyranny of numbers. Ron Chernow numbers people interesting The public has lost faith in the ability of Social Security and Medicare to provide for old age. They've lost faith in the banking system and in conventional medical insurance. Ron Chernow old-age medical age faith Reconstruction is the great black hole that remains to be filled. Even experts on the Civil War don't really understand its full significance. Ron Chernow great understand black war Unless we know where we've been as a country, we don't know where we are or where we are going. Ron Chernow going where know country There were two qualities about the mutual funds of the 1920s that made them extremely speculative. One was that they were heavily leveraged. Two, mutual funds were allowed to invest in other mutual funds. Ron Chernow 1920s about made two I think one of the important things that's happened in the course of the century is that life expectancy has doubled. Ron Chernow things think important life
