Quotes by Alex Berenson - Page 3 | QuoteForever

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After a generation of misrule under Mr. Hussein, who built a huge military infrastructure while neglecting civilian investment, and a dozen years of United Nations sanctions, Iraq's unemployment rate tops 50 percent.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Dozen
Hussein
Infrastructure
Investment
Nations
Rate
Sanctions
Unemployment
Unemployment Rate
United Nations
Mr
Civilian
Neglecting
Tops
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Rising interest rates are considered bad for stocks because they raise the cost of doing business and depress corporate earnings and because higher yields make bonds relatively more attractive than stocks to investors.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Attractive
Corporate
Cost
Investors
Rising
Bonds
Depress
Earnings
Interest Rates
Relatively
Raise
Rates
Stocks
Yields
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Of course, the discounting of future earnings should hurt all stocks. But it should hurt technology stocks more than others, because so many of them are valued at extremely high levels relative to their current earnings.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Levels
Relative
Current
Earnings
Valued
Stocks
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Many newly public companies are able to post a year or two of strong sales growth off a small base, but their growth almost always slows over time, thanks to what investment professionals call 'the law of large numbers.'
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Growth
Investment
Large Numbers
Numbers
Thanks
Base
Companies
Large
Newly
Post
Professionals
Sales
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Determining how many asbestos suits have been filed or how much companies have spent to resolve them is difficult. Cases are filed in state and federal courts, and many companies do not disclose their spending on settlements.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Cases
Resolve
Courts
Determining
Disclose
Federal
Settlements
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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 / Reporter
Decades
General Motors
Investors
Management
Target
Tempting
Weak
Analyst
Auto
Declined
Motors
North American
Steadily
Suffers
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I think when you have lawyers arguing over whether you can keep a detainee at 46 degrees... for two hours, that's not torture. It may be unpleasant, it may be coercive... but let's say what torture actually is, and that's not it.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Arguing
Degrees
Torture
Coercive
Unpleasant
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Because Genentech is a leading developer of cancer therapies, some doctors also fear that the company's pricing plans for Avastin - around $8,800 a month - may encourage other companies to charge more for their own oncology drugs.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Cancer
Plans
Pricing
Month
Charge
Developer
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Higher productivity enables companies to increase sales without adding workers. Even if job markets tighten and wages rise, corporate profits can continue to climb as long as worker productivity is growing faster than overall wages.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Corporate
Faster
Increase
Productivity
Wages
Adding
Rise
Worker
Climb
Enables
Markets
Overall
Sales
Tighten
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The most distinguishing element of my novels is that I try as hard as I can - within the context of a popular commercial thriller - to make them feel authentic. Drawing on real locations and real events is part of that authenticity.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Drawing
Real
Trying
Authentic
Context
Distinguishing
Element
Locations
Popular
Thriller
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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 / Reporter
Computers
Data
Equations
Clog
Doctrines
Faiths
Fill
Pretends
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Stocks in the United States plunged in 2002 amid fears of war and terrorism, a weak economy, rising oil prices and dozens of corporate scandals. It was the third consecutive annual decline, the first time that has happened in 60 years.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Consecutive
Corporate
Decline
Terrorism
Weak
Annual
War Time First Time
War Time Terrorism
Dozens
Fears
Oil Prices
Prices
Scandals
Stocks
Third
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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 / Reporter
Finance
Cash
Nations
Runners
Work Out
Work Money Use
Work Money Finance
African
Committee
Programs
Olympic
Regularly
Sends
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Insider trading is hard to prove. To be convicted, a person must have bought or sold a stock based on material information that is both unknown to the general public and likely to have had an important effect on a company's stock price.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
General Public
Prove
Trading
Unknown
Bought
Convicted
Insider
Sold
Stock
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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 / Reporter
Finance
Competing
Corporate
Economic Growth
Investors
Long Term
Stifling
Bonds
Capital
Invest
Deficits
Interest Rates
Raise
Rates
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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 / Reporter
Finance
Dollars
Green
Investors
Pool
Tree
Banks
Hundreds
Loans
Millions Of Dollars
Thousands
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Big companies, which spend tens of billions of dollars annually on 'call centers' to take orders and provide customer support, increasingly rely on speech recognition not just to handle requests for information but to process customer orders.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Big Companies
Billions
Dollars
Handle
Recognition
Rely
Billions Of Dollars
Centers
Customer
Increasingly
Orders
Requests
Tens
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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 / Reporter
Airline
Customers
Goods
Offering
Tickets
Transforming
Variety
Bought
Consumer
Dreamed
Sold
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From 1983 to 2000, William Goren stole more than $30 million from investors on Long Island and in Queens. His favorite targets were widows and retired couples, like Helga and Simon Novack, Holocaust survivors who gave Mr. Goren their life savings.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Queens
Holocaust
Investors
Long Island
Retired
Widows
Mr
Couples
Island
William
Simon
Stole
Survivors
Targets
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Evidence of defendants' lavish lifestyles is often used to provide a motive for fraud. Jurors sometimes wonder why an executive making tens of millions of dollars would cheat to make even more. Evidence of habitual gluttony helps provide the answer.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Answers
Dollars
Evidence
Fraud
Gluttony
Habitual
Lavish Lifestyle
Motive
Executive
Lavish
Lifestyles
Millions Of Dollars
Tens
Tens Of Millions
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Macroeconomics is the analysis of the economy as a whole, an examination of overall supply and demand. At the broadest level, macroeconomists want to understand why some countries grow faster than others and which government policies can help growth.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Analysis
Demand
Economy
Examination
Faster
Growth
Countries
Government Policies
Overall
Policies
Supply
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In a Ponzi scheme, a promoter pays back his initial investors with money he has raised from new investors. Eventually, the promoter can no longer find enough new investors to pay off the people who have already put up money, and the scheme collapses.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Investors
Money People New
Scheme
Initial
Promoter
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The biggest profit center for investment banks is the hefty fees they charge for underwriting stock offerings and giving financial advice, and analysts put those profits at risk if they publish negative conclusions about the companies that pay the fees.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Fees
Investment
Profit
Analyst
Banks
Center
Charge
Conclusions
Stock
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At any moment, one company stands in the spotlight of the middle ring in the stock market's never-ending circus. It may not be the biggest corporation in the world, or the most profitable, but somehow it both mirrors and leads the market's broader action.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Circus
Mirrors
Never Ending
Profitable
Spotlight
Ring
Broader
Corporation
Leads
Stock
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Microeconomics is the study of how specific choices made by businesses, consumers and governments affect the markets for different goods and services. For example, a microeconomist might examine how price changes affect sales of apples relative to oranges.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Apples
Goods
Relative
Affect
Businesses
Examine
For Example
Governments
Oranges
Price
Sales
Services
Specific
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Financial news services and other media organizations get press releases 15 minutes before they are distributed to the general public, fueling a furious competition among the news services to rewrite them for their subscribers during their window of exclusivity.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Exclusivity
Furious
General Public
Release
Window
Distributed
Rewrite
Services
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The details of the personal expenses that executives put on the company tab often are not known because loopholes in federal disclosure rules let publicly traded companies generally avoid disclosing the perks they give executives along with pay and stock options.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Details
Disclosure
Executives
Expenses
Loopholes
Perks
Rules
Avoid
Companies
Generally
Options
Publicly
Stock
Tab
Traded
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The market always, in theory at least, looks ahead. And it's always trying to take in every bit of information that it can as quickly as it can. You don't really care so much if the company made a dollar last year; you want to know what it's going to make this year.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Last Year
Theory
Dollar
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Sochi started with the same problem as every Winter Olympics. Forget the crass commercialism, the fake amateurism, NBC's refusal to televise important events live to all its viewers. As an event, the Winter Games fail on the most basic level. They're lousy to watch.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Commercialism
Fake
Nbc
Olympics
Refusal
Viewers
Winter
Lousy
Event
Fail
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Automated call centers are only the most obvious way speech recognition will be used. The software is now becoming sophisticated enough to identify speakers through 'voiceprints,' akin to fingerprints, eventually reducing the need for personal identification numbers.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Fingerprints
Identification
Numbers
Obvious
Recognition
Reducing
Software
Speakers
Automated
Centers
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Enron had already collapsed and filed for bankruptcy protection by the beginning of 2002. But despite complaints from short sellers that corporations had used accounting gimmickry to inflate their profits, many investors thought the crisis at Enron was an isolated case.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Accounting
Bankruptcy
Complaints
Corporations
Crisis
Despite
Enron
Investors
Isolated
Protection
Sellers
Collapsed
Inflate
Profits
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Equity is the cushion that protects financial institutions from unexpected changes in the value of their assets. The greater the leverage, the smaller the losses required to wipe out a company's equity, leaving it without enough money to repay the people who hold its debt.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Assets
Equity
Unexpected
Wipe
Money Value People
Cushion
Enough Money
Leverage
Losses
Protects
Repay
Required
Smaller
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In Ghazalia, Mr. Hussein showed his contempt for the majority Shiites in ways large and small. He refused to allow them even one mosque, while the Sunnis had nearly a dozen. To worship, the Shiites had to cross an inconveniently located bridge over the sewage canal to Shula.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Contempt
Dozen
Hussein
Majority
Sewage
Worship
Allow
Bridge
Mr
Nearly
Canal
Cross
Large
Located
Mosque
Refused
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The lower spreads mean lower costs for investors, because Nasdaq investors generally do not trade directly with one another. Instead, they usually buy and sell from market-makers, brokerage firms that flip shares between buyers and sellers and keep the spread for themselves.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Buyers
Flip
Investors
Sellers
Spread
Brokerage
Directly
Shares
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John W. Snow was paid more than $50 million in salary, bonus and stock in his nearly 12 years as chairman of the CSX Corporation, the railroad company. During that period, the company's profits fell, and its stock rose a bit more than half as much as that of the average big company.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Average
Bonus
Chairman
Half
Paid
Salary
Snow
Bit
Big Company
Nearly
Corporation
Period
John
Million
Profits
Railroad
Stock
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The difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics is a bit like the difference between biology and medicine. Knowing that certain genes increase the risk of cancer is relatively easy. Figuring out exactly which people will get sick, or how to cure them, is a lot more complicated.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Biology
Cancer
Genes
Increase
Medicine
Sick
Cure
Figuring
Relatively
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Trust-me companies are companies whose financial results gallop ahead of their businesses, companies with seemingly perfect control over their quarterly sales and profits. Companies whose financial statements are loaded with footnotes: companies that short-sellers often attack but rarely dent.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Loaded
Statements
Attack
Businesses
Dent
Gallop
Profits
Rarely
Sales
Seemingly
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Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, has seen a few financial schemes in his time. As the lead local prosecutor in the world's financial capital, he has battled frauds like the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which stole billions of dollars from investors worldwide.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Attorney
Billions
Commerce
Credit
Dollars
Investors
Manhattan
Prosecutor
Schemes
Bank
Billions Of Dollars
Capital
District
District Attorney
Frauds
Robert
Stole
Worldwide
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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 / Reporter
Fundamental Principles
Principles
Rising
Losers
Fundamental
Interest Rates
Rates
Stock
Stock Market
Technology Companies
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To economists, prices serve as crucial signals to producers and consumers. In a regulated market, the state sets prices high enough for private companies to cover their costs and earn a guaranteed profit for their investors. But in a deregulated market, prices should vary with demand and supply.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Crucial
Demand
Investors
Profit
Signals
Vary
Cover
Deregulated
Earn
Economists
Guaranteed
Prices
Sets
Supply
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Hedge funds try to produce above-average investment returns using tactics ranging from traditional stock-picking to complex derivative and arbitrage plays. High minimum investments, redemption restrictions and aggressive strategies make them suitable mainly for more sophisticated and well-heeled investors.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Aggressive
Investment
Minimum
Produce
Redemption
Sophisticated
Suitable
Tactics
Traditional
Complex
Derivative
High
Funds
Hedge
Mainly
Plays
Restrictions
Returns
Strategies
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The thing to do with mutual funds is to buy a couple of decent ones, set up an investment plan and then never, ever think about them again, except maybe once a quarter or so when you take a peek at your statements to make sure that you have not accidentally been buying the Fidelity Peace-in-the-Middle-East fund.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Buying
Couple
Decent
Fidelity
Fund
Investment
Mutual
Statements
Accidentally
Again
Buy
Set
Except
Maybe
Mutual Funds
Peek
Plan
Quarter
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On the New York Stock Exchange, all buy and sell orders are routed through a single 'specialist,' guaranteeing that most small trades can be matched directly. But most larger trades are delivered to the specialist on the floor of the exchange by human brokers, a system that big investors view as increasingly inefficient.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Investors
Matched
Stock Exchange
Broker
Exchange
Delivered
Directly
Floor
Guaranteeing
Increasingly
Inefficient
Orders
Specialist
Stock
Trades
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For a spy novelist like me, the Edward J. Snowden story has everything. A man driven by ego and idealism - can anyone ever distinguish the two? - leaves his job and his beautiful girlfriend behind. He must tell the world the Panopticon has arrived. His masters vow to punish him, and he heads for Moscow in a desperate search for refuge.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Desperate
Driven
Idealism
Masters
Moscow
Refuge
Snowden
Spy
Vow
Beautiful Man World
Distinguish
Edward
Heads
Leaves
Punish
Search
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Fannie Mae is owned by shareholders but operates under a federal charter that exempts it from paying state or local taxes. As a result, many professional investors think the government would repay the debt that Fannie Mae had issued if the company could not, although Fannie Mae explicitly says that its bonds do not carry a federal guarantee.
Alex Berenson / Reporter
Charter
Debt
Investors
Shareholders
Although
Bonds
Carry
Explicitly
Guarantee
Local
Owned
Paying
Repay
Result
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