I've always argued that this country has benefited immensely from the fact that we draw people from all over the world.

We are in the midst of a once-in-a-century credit tsunami. Central banks and governments are being required to take unprecedented measures. Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity are in a state of shocked disbelief.

Excessive optimism sows the seeds of its own reversal.

These days, even out of office, I still read economic reports.

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.

We need, in effect, to make the phantom 'lock-boxes' around the trust fund real.

Any onset of increased investor caution elevates risk premiums and, as a consequence, lowers asset values and promotes the liquidation of the debt that supported higher asset prices, ... This is the reason that history has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.