In their introduction to “This Time It’s Different” the story of the origin of the phrase is told. Vincent Reinhart worked for the Federal Reserve for twenty-five years. Attending a meeting of the board of governors and market practitioners, one trader with an uncharacteristically long memory declared, “More money has been lost because of four words than at the point of a gun. Those words are, “This time it’s different.”
This Time It’s Different by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff