As IF Times

link Betting on the Blind Side | Business | Vanity Fair.

Michael Lewis is an ex wall streeter and author of a number of very insightful books on Wall Street culture.  This is a long excerpt from his recent book which looks like a fascinating read.  What is to be taken away from this article is that in life, most people herd in one direction and it underscores the notion that the individual can make things happen with their convictions. 

With all the discussion recently about dominance of financial institutions and proposals for further regulation, it’s interesting to note that in a capitalist system, there are checks and balances.  From the article, one can see that people willfully chose to ignore safeguards in place, which if followed, would have prevented much of the bank debacle in 2008/2009.  The history of investing has never been without manias.  As many in our business know,   hard assessments of value can be very slippery.  The reality is, value is only what someone will pay for an asset at a given moment in time.  Like a pile of dominoes, one bad tile can upset the entire pile. In the investing business, genius is ephemeral.