Merton Miller

My expertise was in public finance, particularly corporate taxation, since I had worked at the US Treasury.

My main interest, however, was in economics, not law.

Of course. I favor passive investing for most investors, because markets are amazingly successful devices for incorporating information into stock prices.

My research interests since then have shifted strongly towards the economic and regulatory problems of the financial services industry, and especially of the securities and options exchanges.

I should mention that I am a member of the board of directors of Dimensional Fund Advisors.

What counts is what you do with your money, not where it came from.

What happened after publication of our paper was that, for the next 40 years, people said, all right, we now know the answer to the capital structure question under ideal conditions.

Another is, if you take money out of your left pocket and put it in your right pocket, you're no richer.

But in practice, if often comes down to not suffering a loss as big as the huge gain you made a while ago.

Most people might just as well buy a share of the whole market, which pools all the information, than delude themselves into thinking they know something the market doesn't.

Junk bonds prove there's nothing magical in a Aaa bond rating.

Everyone recognizes that's a joke because obviously the number and shape of the pieces doesn't affect the size of the pizza. And similarly, the stocks, bonds, warrants, etc., issued don't affect the aggregate value of the firm.