How a Tokyo Earthquake Could Devastate Wall Street Quotes

“Despair floods the minds of unemployed beeper manufacturers, Rolex watch salesmen, and society florists.”
― Michael Lewis, How a Tokyo Earthquake Could Devastate Wall Street

“By law the life-insurance companies were not required to pay on deaths caused by earthquakes. But in Japan the law often comes second–in 1923 the insurance companies were ordered to pay money they didn’t owe. In a crisis no Japanese company is really private; the insurance companies have been effectively nationalized. They have been told to pay whatever they can without depleting their domestic-securities portfolios. It is their peculiar charm that they don’t argue.”
― Michael Lewis, How a Tokyo Earthquake Could Devastate Wall Street

“What is remarkable about his study is that it respects all of Japan’s sacred cows–that the rock core of the city won’t be much affected, that people will respond as humanely and efficiently as they do in government reports, that no important officials will perish, that skyscrapers will stand–and still it predicts Armageddon.”
― Michael Lewis, How a Tokyo Earthquake Could Devastate Wall Street

“Despite Tokyo’s astronomical land prices, anyone within earshot of real power commands a room the size of a basketball court in which to host those famous consensus-building sessions. If you want to measure a Japanese man’s clout, get him to show you his conference room.”
― Michael Lewis, How a Tokyo Earthquake Could Devastate Wall Street