“THESE Guys are Good for $250k Apiece?? C’mon” * Like a lot of people who come to Vatopaidi, I suppose, I was less than perfectly sure what I was after. I wanted to see if it felt like a front for a commercial empire (it doesn’t) and if the monks seemed insincere (hardly). But I...Read More
(Pretty) Picture BookBefore I bought the current issue of Vanity Fair (to read Michael Lewis’ new article), I never understood why the cover included not just the featured articles, but their page numbers: because the cover is also the table of contents. Or more accurately, it’s one of two tables of contents; the second one...Read More
“Ten Showings, $10,000” I hated discussing ideas with investors. Because I then become a Defender of the Idea, and that influences your thought process. Once you became an idea’s defender you had a hard time changing your mind about it.” –Author Michael Lewis, quoting investor and fund manager Michael Burry in The Big Short (p....Read More
SEC vs. Goldman Sachs Confused about why the SEC sued Goldman Sachs for fraud, and what it means? Here’s about as succinct a summary as I’ve seen, from the inimitable Michael Lewis: Just as there was a time when people could smoke on airplanes, or drive drunk without guilt, there was a time when a...Read More
Wall Street Self-Selection The continued resonance of [Gordon] Gekko has “probably been the biggest surprise of my career, that people say that this seductive villain has motivated me to go into this business.” –Michael Douglas, talking about his character, Gordon Gekko, in the 1987 film “Wall Street“; The NY Times (9/7/09) “I can’t tell you...Read More
Michael Lewis on Goldman Sachs “The Aristocrats” is one of those iconic (and very off-color) jokes that every comedian of a certain stature feels compelled to put their own comedic imprimatur on. In fact, the movie of the same name is nothing but a collection of famous comedians telling exactly the same joke, in their...Read More
