The four most dangerous words in investing are:
This Time It’s Different.
It’s a message of hope.
A message of change.
But a deceptive story.
Of course it’s different this time but it looks very similar.
It plays on our desire to be different, to feel special and believe that evolution truly broke the mold with us.
Because this time we’re different!
We weren’t there before.
This time we’re better. We’re smarter.
We learned our lesson.
This time it won’t crash.
This time your money is SAFU.
We’re not the same as those other folks that screwed you.
This time it’s different.
We’re really in this together. Promise.
They often add on four even more deadly words:
You can trust us.
This time might be different.
But it will feel pretty much the same.