Kurt Eichenwald Quotes & Sayings

Excuse me, Ben," Bowen said. "Am I wrong, or aren't you the corporate treasurer?"
Glisan bristled. "Yes."
"What do you mean, you think you can get one?" Bowen shot back. "This is the current fucking maturities schedule! Go get it. You have to have a maturities schedule!"
But they didn't. With all the focus on deals and earnings- with finance group's transformation into a profit center rather than a division to support the business- the workday, boring details had been sloughed off.
p. 560 — Kurt Eichenwald

When the Bill of Rights was written, no one owned a MAG5100, 100-round magazine for an M-16. The concept of a mass slaughter carried out over a matter of minutes was incomprehensible. — Kurt Eichenwald

A eureka moment. It suddenly struck Mintz as so obvious. The executives entrusted with reviewing all of the LJM transactions- Causey, Buy, the board- approached their duties casually, giving everything just the onceover. They seemed to figure that somebody else was doing the tough analysis. But no one was.
p.389 — Kurt Eichenwald

Social media is not only the most important tool for inciting terrorists, it can also be an effective weapon against them. — Kurt Eichenwald

Fastow had found someone trusting and pliable.
Fastow wanted a pupet, Bowen concluded, and he already controlled Ben Glisan's strings.
p.338 — Kurt Eichenwald

At any time of day, hundreds of different versions of Facebook are running on the Internet - with a changed color here, a moved button there - and the user response to each variation is measured. And the same is done with advertising. — Kurt Eichenwald

There have been times that I have found myself in places, and I don't know how I got there, and I don't actually know where I am. — Kurt Eichenwald

I've often thought that Obama should come out in favor of oxygen, just to see how many right-wingers keel over from holding their breath for too long. — Kurt Eichenwald

When it comes to the teapot tempest that is the Hillary Clinton email imbroglio, the real controversy isn't about politics or regulations. It's about journalism and the weak standards employed to manufacture the scandal du jour. — Kurt Eichenwald

In a market, preceptions could be as important as reality.
p.403 — Kurt Eichenwald

To a degree, the West is reaping what it sowed from a major strategic blunder in the aftermath of 9/11 - the entire concept of a war on technique, that is, terrorism. Defining the enemy when fighting a concept was impossible. — Kurt Eichenwald

Enron was becoming a virtual cult of creativity, often placing swagger over substance. New ideas were celebrated for their newness, for their potential; tried and true businesses like the pipelines were almost derided. — Kurt Eichenwald

There isn't a lot of honesty when it comes to discussing Obamacare. Too many Republicans lie about the implications of the health-insurance program and dismiss out of hand the reasons a massive overhaul of the long-time system is necessary. — Kurt Eichenwald

Bitcoins can be traded or used for purchases, but only with those sellers who will accept them. Because it is a system independent of external meddling, there can be no sudden devaluation of Bitcoins through the actions of governments. — Kurt Eichenwald

Basically, whenever someone says they're wrong, conservatives too often fall back on claims that those who disagree with them are biased and thus worthy of being ignored, a convenient position that allows them to avoid debating uncomfortable criticisms. — Kurt Eichenwald

According to the Epilepsy Foundation of America, there are more than two million Americans with epilepsy. Half have what I have, idiopathic epilepsy, meaning there is no known cause for the seizures. — Kurt Eichenwald

I think it's wrong for the government to subpoena records from journalists involved in national-security reporting (particularly since I do it myself). I do believe it has a chilling effect on the ability to gather news about potential abuses masked by inappropriate classification. — Kurt Eichenwald

The bottom-line message of history is that if you're doubling and tripling your money in record time, you're also more likely to lose it all. — Kurt Eichenwald

Until his dying days, Steve Jobs could not only predict the direction the marketplace would be heading, but help drive it there. — Kurt Eichenwald

Kaminski plunged ahead. "I am not going to sign off on anything related to the Raptors," he said. "And I don't care if I'm fired for it."
Buy raised a hand. "Whoa, wait a minute, I don't think you'll be fired," he replied quickly. "Now that Skilling's gone, we have a different mantra in Enron."
He looked Kaminski in the eye. "We're expected to be honest", he said.
p.525 — Kurt Eichenwald

By the time I arrived for my freshman year at Swarthmore College in 1979, I had already had many seizures, although my family, friends and I did not know it. — Kurt Eichenwald

I have always trusted my impulses. I have always believed that once I'm in the circumstances, whatever they may be, I will find the right way. — Kurt Eichenwald

If a doctor said you had stomach cancer, would you consult Rush Limbaugh for a second opinion? Of course, that sounds like nonsense, but many Americans have no qualms about listening to political commentators and untrained activists when it comes to even more complex scientific questions. — Kurt Eichenwald

The doctor gave me several warnings: Never tell anyone unless necessary, because I might be ostracized. Call it 'seizure disorder,' not epilepsy, because fewer people would be frightened. Try to choose a profession as free from stress as possible. — Kurt Eichenwald

By the dawn of the millennium, the hallways at Microsoft were no longer home to barefoot programmers in Hawaiian shirts working through nights and weekends toward a common goal of excellence; instead, life behind the thick corporate walls had become staid and brutish. — Kurt Eichenwald

I am an Obamacare agnostic - if it works, as I hope it will for the good of the nation, then it's a great thing. If it doesn't, then that is a disappointing thing, and we need to try something else. — Kurt Eichenwald

Plenty of people detested Michael Jackson before his death wiped away the world's collective memory. Timberlake was originally dismissed as just another boy-bander. Legions have joined in a 'Hate Anne Hathaway' movement. Elvis, the Rolling Stones, Kristen Bell, even Mozart had haters. — Kurt Eichenwald

Like most people, I gave little thought during my life to the scourge of child pornography. But, I now know we are fighting a losing battle. The predators are sophisticated in the use of computers and talented in the manipulation of children. — Kurt Eichenwald

Enron would keep its unearned windfall, generated solely because David Duncan didn't know what he was doing. — Kurt Eichenwald

Because the Second Amendment is an incomprehensible mess, because too many lobbyists have argued that it is an absolute protection of actions and items never considered at the time of our nation's founding, and because there is a clear state interest in protecting the lives of its citizens, the words must be removed from the Constitution. — Kurt Eichenwald

Plenty of gun opponents have pointed out the obvious: that the Founding Fathers could never have envisioned the kinds of 'arms' that exist today - Washington, Jefferson, and the rest had never even seen a bullet. Musket balls for guns that required constant reloading were the 'arms' of the day. — Kurt Eichenwald

It is the ultimate conceit of conservatives: that more than half of American voters don't make up more than half of our country. — Kurt Eichenwald

People don't have a constitutional right to leave loaded guns lying around. And if they choose to do so - and a kid gets shot and killed because of it - it's not an accident. It's negligent homicide. — Kurt Eichenwald

No one - not a conservative or liberal or whatever - can stand back and 'define' what marriage means. Other people's marriages have nothing to do with mine; whether my neighbors are divorced or gay or widowed will not lead me to change anything about how my wife and I deal with each other or how we raise our children. — Kurt Eichenwald

As late as 2007, Facebook was still trying to figure out what it wanted to be when it grew up. An advertising space seemed to be the obvious answer, but how that would tap into the massive value of the personal data uploaded to the company every day remained a puzzle. — Kurt Eichenwald

Whenever someone says zygotes are babies, I reply: 'Imagine a thousand zygotes in test tubes in one room, and three toddlers in another. A fire breaks out, and you only have time to get to one room. Which would you save from burning - the zygotes or the children?' — Kurt Eichenwald

Uninsured people don't just slink off into a corner and die. They seek treatment, but usually when it is an emergency, and this will be the most expensive kind of care available. — Kurt Eichenwald

If Republicans truly are dedicated to the sanctity of life, they should be the first ones on the front lines trying to get policies for the uninsured. — Kurt Eichenwald

The argument by the anti-gay-marriage crowd is so absurd, so internally contradictory, and so awash in unproven assertions that it is difficult to take it as anything more than a construct cobbled together by people who just don't like those people. — Kurt Eichenwald

I have no problem with responsible gun owners who own weapons for self-protection, hunting, or just sport. The ones who believe they have a constitutional right to 100-round magazines to fight off I don't know what - a zombie apocalypse? - try to shut down dialogue with threats and other macho posing because of their flawed beliefs. — Kurt Eichenwald

There were plenty of reasons to suspect Obamacare might have been a colossal failure - although none of them had to do with death panels, huge lines for treatment, a government takeover of health care, etc. — Kurt Eichenwald

A war on Al-Qaeda could have been won with a decisive military strike in Tora Bora during December 2001, but American fighters at Tora Bora were refused requests for more forces when they trapped Al-Qaeda there; the Pentagon was busy husbanding resources for the Iraqi invasion. — Kurt Eichenwald

All anti-abortion protesters should be presented, on the spot, with an application to sign up as foster parents. They should also be given the names of children in their area in need of adoptive parents. And if they won't sign or volunteer, they should shut up. — Kurt Eichenwald

In the aftermath of the oh-so-predictable crash, the Bitcoin fanatics have begun marshaling out excuse after excuse for why this non-investment investment lost so much of its value so fast. One was that hackers attacked some of the exchanges for Bitcoins and crippled it. Really? A hacker can wreck an entire market? — Kurt Eichenwald

Bitcoins are not a real investment; they are bets inside a casino. If the price goes back up, don't be fooled. In the parlance of popping investment bubbles, it's something called a 'dead-cat bounce.' People who are desperate to keep the game going rush back in, hoping to bring the price back up, but it never lasts. — Kurt Eichenwald

Bitcoins are not an investment. They are an investment fad that someday could be a real digital currency, but if they continue to behave as they have, they will instead be nothing. — Kurt Eichenwald

When it came to dire warnings about Obamacare, the Republicans were the kings of 'swing and a miss.' People would flee the health care industry to avoid Obamacare? Nope - according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, health care gained about 1 million new jobs in preparation for increased demand. — Kurt Eichenwald

When 'Christians' cite the Bible as the basis for secular policies, they must explain why they believe Muslims in the Middle East are evil for doing the same with the Koran. — Kurt Eichenwald

The myth that people with epilepsy swallow their tongues is very injurious. When I had seizures without my roommates present, I would often wake up with my gums bleeding, my teeth hurting or my jaw aching. Often, well-intentioned people, believing I would choke on my tongue, tried to force open my clenched jaw to put in a hard object. — Kurt Eichenwald

I've long thought that Marco Rubio would make a strong G.O.P. candidate for president. While he was brought into office by surfing on the Tea Party wave, he has proven himself not to be wedded to the frequent lunacy of those folks. — Kurt Eichenwald

Assess Bitcoins? All you can do is examine the trading patterns, which do not provide a real analysis of any underlying economic value. The economics of investments are not solely based on supply and demand, and that is all that goes into Bitcoin prices. — Kurt Eichenwald

Obamacare is socialism? Nope - as insurance companies vie to sell new policies, competition within private industry is growing rapidly, with the number of participating insurers growing by 26 percent between 2014 and 2015, and the number of products they offer growing by 66 percent. — Kurt Eichenwald

Too often, it seems, conservatives have scorned experts as incompetent, biased, or otherwise worth ignoring because they came up with answers that didn't fit their politically desired answer. Often, they proclaim experts have a liberal bias. Of course, plenty of Democrats have voted for conservative ideas, but that is beside the point. — Kurt Eichenwald