the investment bonfire

In a recent letter to shareholders, Ralph Wanger, the iconoclastic chief
investment officer at Liberty Wanger Asset Management in Chicago, laments
that his firm lost $956 million through the end of the third quarter. To put
that figure in perspective, he tried to figure out how hard it would be to
lose that much money on purpose. His explanation follows:
"One way to do it would have been to convert $956 million into $100 bills on
Jan 1, 2002 and order our 20 investment professionals to spend all their
time burning it. It sounds sort of festive really -- drink some beer, make
S'mores and enjoy the glow, warmth and fellowship around the bonfire
(singing Kumbaya optional). How hard would we have had to work to do this?
Well, if one person diligently burned one $100 bill at the rate of one bill
every 10 seconds and worked seven hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a
year, that one person could burn up $63 million in a year. It would take all
20 of us working full time at this repetitive task to get rid of $956
million in just nine months."

Fidelity Investments' $129.7 billion would, the WSJ added drily, have been
"some bonfire".