Alex Berenson Quotes

The best companies with the strongest credit ratings borrow like the United States: on a non-prioritized basis. This means that in the event of a default, all of their debts are of equal priority because lenders and creditors believe default is highly unlikely. And they spend considerable effort maintaining this status.

The very nature of finance is that it cannot be profitable unless it is significantly leveraged... and as long as there is debt, there can be failure and contagion.

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.

Banks always want their capital requirements to be as low as possible, so they can take more risks, which can enable them to make more money – and reap bigger bonuses for executives.

Solvency is maintained by means of a national debt, on the principle, "If you will not lend me the money, how can I pay you?"

A bank needs models to measure risk. The problem, however, is that any one bank can measure its risk, but it also has to know what the risk taken by other banks in the system happens to be at any particular moment.

If you're not staying on top of your money, you are putting your financial well-being at risk.

The fundamental problem with banks is what it's always been: they're in the business of banking, and banking, whether plain vanilla or incredibly sophisticated, is inherently risky.

I want to see an end to sovereign risk questions over Australia.

Michigan is also the only industrial state that has a AAA credit rating.

Junk bonds prove there's nothing magical in a Aaa bond rating.

Not so long ago, companies that borrowed lots of money were considered risky, appropriate only for daredevil stock pickers. Those with lots of cash on hand and few outstanding debts might be dull stocks, but they were at least safe bets for bondholders.

Talking about Korea, it has pretty high capital ratios at banks and maintains a good credit rating.

A company is only as solvent as the perception of its solvency.

You do not want to get your debt ratio out of whack.

Why do we have financial crises? Why do banks lose money? If history is any guide, it hasn't often been the result of speculative bets. It has been the result of banks making loans to individuals and businesses who can't pay them back.

Complexity and interconnectedness matter as much as size in assessing risk in banking.

We are monitoring the global companies on a daily basis, and their rating continues to be investment grade. We will take immediate action if anything goes wrong.

If you think about it: a big bank in any country, what is it? Really, as an investment, it's a warrant on economy.

Keep a strong balance sheet, don't get over-leveraged, and try to protect the security of your employees.

A financial institution has the task of taking risks, and if it's a well run institution - say, Goldman Sachs - it tries to cover the potential losses to itself, but only to itself.

It has to be understood, it has to be measured, and the investment needs to make sense, but debt on its face is not a bad thing.

Divestment measures would improve overall banking sector health.

When you're levered 9 to 1, it'd be unreal for a bank to go down.

An improving credit landscape means fewer loans are delinquent - and fewer people are needed to service these loans.