1/ Despite supply and demand being such basic ideas, people still get confused. George Gilder in February 2001 predicted two telecom firms "will battle for worldwide supremacy, but in a trillion-dollar market, there will be no loser." Within a year, both filed for bankruptcy.

2/ John Malone: “The fiber business is a good business—for one or two providers—but for 30? All funded with borrowed money?"

Bill Gates: "Supply is the killer of value. That’s why the computer industry is a strange industry. We’re dealing with amazing increases in supply.”

3/ Bill Gates: "When radial tires were invented, people didn’t start driving their cars a lot more, and so it means the need for production capacity went way down, and things got all messed up. The tire industry is still messed up.”

4/ Michael Porter: "In many companies strategy is built around the value proposition, which is the demand side of the equation. But it is also about the supply side. If there are no barriers to entry… you won’t be very profitable.”

Rising demand for X doesn't always = profit.

5/ In his Five Minute University routine on Saturday Night Live the comedian Father Guido Sarducci pointed out: “Economics? Supply and Demand. That’s it.'”

Too often people think about just supply or just demand, when it is the interaction of both that determines success.

6/ Charlie Munger: "Many markets get down to two or three competitors - or five or six. In some of those markets, nobody makes any money to speak of. But in others, everybody does very well. ... Unfortunately, I do not have a perfect model for predicting what's going to happen."

7/ Can you think of examples in which investors thought rising demand was enough to create new value, but were crushed by faster rising supply?

Can you think of examples in which investors who thought rising supply was enough to create new value, but were crushed by flat demand?