21 Quotes & Sayings By Alex Berenson

Alex Berenson is a bestselling author of several award-winning investigative books, including The President's Shadow, about the CIA's involvement in Iran-Contra and the death of US Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North during the hostage crisis; and The Confidence Man, which became a motion picture starring Matt Damon and Russell Crowe Read more

He has also written a number of best sellers focusing on organized crime, including The Last Don: The True Story of America's Most Wanted Man; and The Valachi Papers, about undercover FBI agent Joe Valachi's role as the first witness to testify before Congress about the Mafia.

1
Good spectator sports share certain fundamentals. Their competitors battle head-to-head. Their winners are determined objectively: fastest runner, most points. They are refereed, not judged. Alex Berenson
2
Downhill track sports like luge are technology battles, as exciting as a NASCAR qualifying day. Alex Berenson
3
Economics pretends to be a science. Its practitioners fill blackboards with equations and clog computers with data. But it is really a faith, or more accurately a set of overlapping and squabbling faiths, each with its own doctrines. Alex Berenson
4
Did anyone in the White House or the N.S.A or the C.I.A. consider flying to Hong Kong and treating Mr. Snowden like a human being, offering him a chance to testify before Congress and a fair trial? Alex Berenson
5
It's no secret that big institutional investors have a lot of advantages on Wall Street. They get the first chance to buy hot initial public offerings. They get to meet in person with companies' managements. Alex Berenson
6
One of the Internet's highest-profile companies, Priceline once dreamed of transforming the way consumer goods are bought and sold by offering customers the chance to 'name your own price' for a variety of products, including airline tickets. Alex Berenson
7
Big banks have long had private equity divisions that put up capital for deals too complex or risky for individual shareholders to finance. Alex Berenson
8
To finance deficits, the government must sell bonds to investors, competing for capital that could otherwise be used to invest in stocks or corporate bonds. Government borrowings raise long-term interest rates, stifling economic growth. Alex Berenson
9
African runners regularly work out in the United States and Europe, and the International Olympic Committee sends some of the cash from the Games to Olympic committees in poor nations, which use the money to finance their own programs. Alex Berenson
10
Like many other banks and finance companies, Green Tree used a process called securitization to resell its home loans to outside investors. Green Tree grouped thousands of these small loans into a pool worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Alex Berenson
11
Whatever the potential pitfalls, banks are increasingly enthusiastic about venture capital, particularly in new companies with strong prospects in fields like health care and technology. Alex Berenson
12
I know it's a cliche, but trust me on this. I once dated a Canadian. Canada = boring. Alex Berenson
13
Trust the Canadians to produce a game about mutual funds that is actually more boring than the real thing. Alex Berenson
14
Every public company depends to some extent on the trust of its investors. Alex Berenson
15
It's one of the fundamental principles of the stock market: When interest rates go up, stocks go down. And along with financial companies and cyclicals, technology companies - with their sky-high price-to-earnings multiples - should be among the biggest losers in an environment of rising rates. Alex Berenson
16
Technology investment drove growth in the 1990s, both directly and by fueling a rising stock market that led to increased consumer spending. Alex Berenson
17
Information technology departments must spend enormous amounts of time and money worrying about integrating big computer systems with billions of pieces of customer data. Alex Berenson
18
Even technology companies get good news sometimes. Alex Berenson
19
For value investors, General Motors is a tempting target. The company's share of the North American auto market has steadily declined for two decades, and analysts say the company suffers from weak management and unexciting cars. Alex Berenson
20
Many legal experts note that prosecutors regularly seek indictments of people or companies for destroying evidence or impeding investigations, even if they cannot prove other charges. Alex Berenson