Maven: HSBC's Rancid Rhetoric

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Investors might think a darker phrase had never been spoken than, "It's different this time." Actually, one has: "It won't happen again." Now, realizing that at certain points in business cycles, certain practices tend to repeat themselves with tedious regularity, and knowing that it's always hard for lenders not to give in to temptation, we can almost see the stink fumes rising from these two particular cans of rhetoric.

Wise investors are well advised to go into a state of extra alertness when they see or hear these rancid words. ...