The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War.

But rules cannot substitute for character.

The process of innovation is, of course, never ending.

Even though some down payments are borrowed, it would take a large, and historically most unusual, fall in home prices to wipe out a significant part of home equity. Many of those who purchased their residence more than a year ago have equity buffers in their homes adequate to withstand any price decline other than a very deep one.

The more flexible an economy, the greater its ability to self-correct in response to inevitable, often unanticipated, disturbances and thus to contain the size and consequences of cyclical imbalances.

If I say something which you understand fully in this regard, I probably made a mistake.

I'm a plain soap kind of guy.