Bill Ackman cites his best investments, praises Elon Musk, and warns against following conventional wisdom. Here are his best 6 quotes.

Bill Ackman talked about his best investments, innovation and “improbable possibilities”.
He praised Elon Musk, warned against following conventional wisdom and offered up some advice.
Here are the billionaire investor’s 6 best quotes from a lengthy Twitter post this week.

Silicon Valley Bank’s just suffered the worst financial meltdown in 15 years. Here’s what you should know, and what A-list market minds are saying.

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last week has created a great deal of fallout.
Warren Buffett may be buying the dip in regional bank stocks, Bill Ackman says.
Lloyd Blankfein, Bill Ackman, and Michael Burry have all weighed in on the fiasco rocking markets.

We’re live as Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse continues to rattle investors and stoke fears of further bank runs and financial catastrophe.

The US Treasury, Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. helped assuage those worries on Sunday by announcing deposits at the country’s 16th-largest bank would be guaranteed, and the bank’s customers would have access to all of their money on Monday. The FDIC took control of SVB on Friday, while the Fed plans to offer loans to banks and other deposit holders in case they face a wave of withdrawals.

Some experts have celebrated the intervention as necessary to prevent a crisis. Others have warned it could encourage banks to be more reckless, and SVB might be the first of several institutions to fail.

President Biden has reassured Americans that their deposits are safe, taxpayers won’t foot the bill for bank losses, and he plans to rein in the banking sector to avoid future crises. Meanwhile, Warren Buffett might be buying the dip in regional bank stocks, Bill Ackman has said.

Follow along for the latest developments, analysis of what it all means, and what the likes of Lloyd Blankfein, Bill Ackman, Michael Burry, Mark Cuban, Paul Krugman, and Elon Musk are saying.

First Republic Bank stock plunges 60% on contagion fears

First Republic Bank shares plunged by over 60% in premarket trading on Monday, as SVB’s collapse fanned fears that the San Franscisco-based lender would also implode.

First Repuplic has rushed to calm nervous investors, noting on Sunday that it has secured access to additional cash from the Fed and JPMorgan, boosting its available liquidity to over $70 billion.

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Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has talked about his best investments to-date, warned against following conventional wisdom in business strategy and beyond, and how the greatest opportunities for discovery and profits are found.

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The Pershing Square Capital CEO also praised Tesla boss Elon Musk, offered up some lessons he’s learned over the years, and touted the importance of challenging the status quo in any field.

Ackman made the comments in a lengthy Twitter post on Sunday, after he offered to donate $150,000 to charity if American scientist Dr Peter Hotez debated vaccines on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Here are Ackman’s 6 best quotes, lightly edited for length and clarity:

1. “The greatest opportunities for discovery, innovation, understanding, and profits often exist in the unexplored paths, the unasked and unanswered questions, and in the improbable possibilities.”

2. “Our best investments have been: (1) in the stock of a real estate company going bankrupt, (2) from betting that a triple-A rated company was insolvent, and (3) betting that a virus in China would cause a global economic shutdown.” (Ackman reportedly made $800 million on bankrupt CRE in 2009, earned $1.4 billion after shorting the largest bond insurer MBAI that same year, and turned $27 million into $2.6 billion by betting that the coronavirus pandemic would tank the stock market in 2020.)

3. “Each of these investments were met with extreme skepticism at the time they were made. In each case, we were the naive ones when we made these investments. We were not bankruptcy investors, experts in bond insurers or credit default swaps, nor did we know anything about viruses or pandemics.”

4. “I have learned from experience that the experts, the government, and conventional wisdom are often wrong. ‘Inflation is transitory.’ ‘C19 did not escape from the Wuhan lab.’ ‘Ukraine will fall in less than a week.’ ‘Its not possible because it hasn’t been done before or because it hasn’t happened before.'” (Ackman and many others have criticized the Federal Reserve for reacting too late to an inflation surge that started in 2021, and then unleashing an aggressive monetary-tightening campaign that has raised risks of recession and financial instability.)

5. “It is often the outlier with no experience in a field that challenges the status quo, that makes the important discovery, that has the unique insight, or creates the transformational innovation. Elon Musk was not an expert in payments, electric cars or rockets. The ‘experts’ were at Visa, GM and NASA.”

6. “When you are part of the establishment, it is hard to challenge the conventional wisdom. You are incentivized not to. And when your economic livelihood can be threatened by an alternative point of view or a new innovation, you are less likely to believe it or its viability.”