We're right, We're right - We are all right!

From memo to Oaktree Clients

"My mother used to tell a story about the shtetls – villages – in the old country where disagreements were settled by the rabbi.

In one, an argument was raging with no possible grounds for compromise. The villagers brought the two parties to the rabbi. “Tell your side,” the rabbi said to one fellow, and he did.

“You’re right,” the rabbi declared.

One of the bystanders piped up: “You can’t tell him he’s right, rabbi; you haven’t heard the other side of the story.”

So the rabbi told the other party to tell his side, and he did. His story was the polar opposite of the other party’s.

“You’re right,” said the rabbi.

“Hold on, rabbi,” a villager said, “the first guy told his story and you said he was right. Then the other guy told his story – different in every regard – and you said he was right. They both can’t be right.”

“And you’re right,” said the rabbi.

The current disagreement over bank nationalization shows that (a) there can be valid arguments on both sides of an issue and (b) it can be hard to figure out who’s right."