Andrew Beal Quotes
101 Andrew Beal Quotes
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[On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantees when staff members mentioned them.] Worthless.
Andrew Beal
If I see another office condo in Las Vegas or Phoenix, I’m going to throw up.
Andrew Beal
[On selling at 115 cents on the dollar a pool of $75 million loans that had been given to Kmart, 24 Hour Fitness and Regal Cinemas at a price of 1.35 percentage points over treasuries.] They were great loans at 85 cents [what he paid for them], they're stupid at 115.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009 on the 2004-2007 lending environment.] I thought it would end in six months, and sanity would return. If I knew it would last nearly four years I would have thought of something else to do.
Andrew Beal
[On selling $74 million of preferred stock in late 2006 for terms of just Libor plus 1.7 percentage points for 30 years.] Stupidly mispriced.
Andrew Beal
I just didn’t fit into any box.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009 on buying tens of millions of loans.] Everything you can imagine, in every state.
Andrew Beal
[On buying loans in April 2009] With a rifle not a shotgun.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009 on government guarantees.] We must be the only bank that has tripled in size in the last eight months, but we aren't eligible for nothing. The crazy thing is guys who weren't real responsible are eligible.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009] Banks are on a prayer mission that somehow prices will come back and they won't have to face reality.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009] Unemployment is going over 10%, commercial real estate hasn't even begun collapsing and corporate credit defaults are just getting started.
Andrew Beal
Often wrong, but seldom in doubt.
Andrew Beal
[In 2007] When is a contract NOT enforceable according to its clear terms? When it is in the state of New York.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009 on loans he’s bought for as low as four cents on the dollar.] [FDIC Chairman] Sheila Bair doesn't like the prices, [but] you need a margin of error.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009 on a loan he rejects buying.] This had to be originated in the stupid times.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009] All these guys were stumbling over each other 18 months ago to pay over par. Now they can't sell fast enough at a discount. Why do people not do the great deals and do all the stupid ones? It's crazy.
Andrew Beal
[In April 2009 on not wanting to push people out of their businesses, but at times having no choice.] Borrowers force us into litigation. They don’t want to perform on their loan, they won't talk to our workout people. What are we supposed to do, send them a vase of roses?
Andrew Beal
[In November 2009] We are not in a position to comment at this time.
Andrew Beal
[In March 2010] We are back in a credit bubble. All the good opportunities have gone away. [His exception - failed banks.]
Andrew Beal
[In December 2010] We will not succumb to blackmail or extortion.
Andrew Beal
[In June 2011] Today’s markets are being supported by a flood of money. There are so many lenders in a race to the bottom when things are good. We don’t participate in that.
Andrew Beal
[In June 2011] I hate big government.
Andrew Beal
[In June 2011] I don’t like the government- issued paper currency rules or the laws that require its use. But those are the rules, and I live by them.
Andrew Beal
[In June 2011 on never operating a hedge fund.] Interfacing with regulators is one thing. Taking calls constantly from various investors is intolerable. Also, why split profits?
Andrew Beal
[In June 2011 on claims of paying low wages.] Jobs paying $200,000 just don’t grow on trees, except in New York.
Andrew Beal
[In June 2011 on spending $5 billion on loans and other assets over a 12 months period starting in 2008] I wish we’d done twice as much. The sky was falling. We thought it would get cheaper.
Andrew Beal
[On taking chances in business.] I’m not sure I’d call it taking chances. I think of it as attributing a different level of risk to a problem than the rest of the world attributes to it. I’m not that much of a risk taker. I just take situations that people perceive to be high risk, and I decide that they can be managed to low risk. I’m really very conservative.
Andrew Beal
[On investing in the aerospace industry.] People told me I was crazy. Someone said I was having a midlife crisis. I thought it was a reasoned decision and continue to believe it’s a reasoned decision. It can be managed to very acceptable risk.
Andrew Beal
[On the BA-2 rocket compared to the BA-1 rocket.] Is twice as large a rocket, and we’ll leave it at that.
Andrew Beal
[On the possibility of his rocket failing on launch.] If that happens, we’ll do failure analysis, then we’ll launch again.
Andrew Beal
One, it’s a mathematical certainty that an asteroid will hit the earth one day; two, all life will be extinguished; three, the only way to save mankind is to colonize other planets; and four, it’s fulfilling to think that Beal Aerospace might play some tiny part in making that happen.
Andrew Beal
I don’t lose sleep over that because it could be a billion years or hundreds of millions of years or tens of millions of years away. But the fact is it could be 20 years away. And to the extent that our efforts speed up the colonizing of other planets—you just never know all the implications of efforts like this…. So all the knowledge, all the answers to questions that we don’t even know to ask—all that will be furthered by what we’re doing. And I like that.
Andrew Beal
[On the Beal Conjecture.] Oh no. No. No. I’m not a mathematician. I’m just a hobbyist. I dabble in number theory.
Andrew Beal
We wonder where the computer industry would be today if the U.S. government had selected and subsidized one or two personal computer systems when Microsoft Inc. or Compaq Inc. were in their infancy.
Andrew Beal
[In May 1999 to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.] Please, please do not give companies billions of our dollars to play around with experimental programs. You will create jobs by spending public money, but you absolutely will not produce low-cost commercial access to space. We don't mind the risks, and we are confident of our ability to succeed. Please help either no one, or everyone.
Andrew Beal
[In May 1999 on Beal Aerospace] Our greatest risk comes not from the competitive
marketplace, but from government intervention.
Andrew Beal
[In May 1999] One of our biggest risks is that well-intentioned government actions might improperly tilt the playing field by rewarding or penalizing various competitors, essentially predetermining the winners and losers.
Andrew Beal
[In May 1999] There is no lack of financial capital in the United States.
Andrew Beal
[In May 1999] If the government wants to assist the space transportation business, it must reward success only and stay out of the rocket development business.
Andrew Beal
[In May 1999] The government can stimulate the business by either reducing risk or increasing reward. There are simple ways that the government could reduce risk or increase reward. An income tax holiday for all profits generated from launches would substantially increase the rewards of being successful, without subsidizing anyone unable to produce successful launches. A commitment by the government or NASA to purchase launches, and to only pay for successful launches, would also reward only success.
Andrew Beal
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