We are led by lawyers who do not understand either technology or balance sheets.

There are men who can write poetry, and there are men who can read balance sheets. The men who can read balance sheets cannot write.

It sounds extraordinary but it's a fact that balance sheets can make fascinating reading.

With weak balance sheets, banks tend to continue lending unprofitable businesses and leave them existing.

If you think too-big-to-fail banks are not worthy of investment because of their impossible-to-read balance sheets, well then, don't buy them.

The fact is that one of the earliest lessons I learned in business was that balance sheets and income statements are fiction, cash flow is reality.