History cannot be reduced to a set of statistics and probabilities.
At the risk of some oversimplification, if the skill composition of our work force meshed fully with the needs of our increasingly complex capital-stock, wage-skill differentials would be stable, and the percentage changes in wage rates would be the same for all job grades.
Without the triggers, that tax cut is irreponsible fiscal policy. Eventually, I think that will be the consensus view.
If I say something which you understand fully in this regard, I probably made a mistake.
Regulation of derivatives transactions that are privately negotiated by professionals is unnecessary.
Regulation – which is based on force and fear – undermines the moral base of business dealings. It becomes cheaper to bribe a building inspector than to meet his standards of construction. Protection of the consumer by regulation is thus illusory.
No matter how skillful the trading scheme, over the long haul, abnormal returns are sustained only through abnormal exposure to risk.
If I’ve made myself clear, I’ve misspoken.
Excessive optimism sows the seeds of its own reversal.
Without calling the overall national issue a bubble, it’s pretty clear that it’s an unsustainable underlying pattern.
Cash is available and we should use that in larger amounts, as is necessary, to solve the problems of the stress of this.
Well, you probably will always believe there should be laws against fraud, and I don’t think there is any need for a law against fraud.
Corruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere. It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it or not. What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum. No one has ever eliminated any of that stuff.
You can’t have the capitalist system if an increasing number of people think it is unjust.
The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default.
If all currencies are moving up or down together, the question is: relative to what? Gold is the canary in the coal mine. It signals problems with respect to currency markets. Central banks should pay attention to it.
If we are to remain preeminent in transforming knowledge into economic value, America’s system of higher education must remain the world’s leader in generating scientific and technological breakthrough, and in meeting the challenge to educate workers.
The gut-feel of the 55-year old trader is more important than the mathematical elegance of the 25-year old genius.
Regulators have not been able to achieve the level of future clarity required to act pre-emptively. The problem is not lack of regulation but unrealistic expectations. What we confront in reality is uncertainty, some of it frighteningly so...
How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values?