Without the triggers, that tax cut is irreponsible fiscal policy. Eventually, I think that will be the consensus view.

We may be in a rapidly evolving international financial system with all the bells and whistles of the so-called new economy. But the old-economy rules of prudence are as formidable as ever. We violate them at our own peril.

All taxes are a drag on economic growth. It's only a question of degree.

Fear and euphoria are dominant forces, and fear is many multiples the size of euphoria. Bubbles go up very slowly as euphoria builds. Then fear hits, and it comes down very sharply. When I started to look at that, I was sort of intellectually shocked. Contagion is the critical phenomenon which causes the thing to fall apart.

Since I've become a central banker, I've learned to mumble with great incoherence. If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said.

If I've made myself clear, I've misspoken.

Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth.