STABILITY BREEDS COMPLACENCY: INVESTORS MUST RELEARN THE ART OF CAUTION

Every investing era has its favourite rationalizations—confident claims that the old rules no longer apply.

- DHIRENDRA KUMAR

Perhaps the most famous is the phrase “this time it’s different,” now shorthand for dangerous delusion. We investors use it mockingly when spotting bubbles or fads — those moments when promoters insist their scheme has transcended ordinary economic laws. The tulip bulb that cannot fall, the technology stock that need not show profits, the cryptocurrency that will replace all currencies—every generation produces its own version of disbelief. Early in my investing life, everyone seemed to believe in Harshad Mehta’s “replacement cost” theory. What a joke that seems now.

And yet, there’s an uncomfortable irony in our smugness. By dismissing any claim that circumstances have shifted, we risk falling into the opposite trap: assuming that nothing ever changes. We've become so used to ridiculing bubble optimists that we forget legitimately transformative moments do occur. Sometimes, this time genuinely is different.