Whatever you tax you get less of.

The very nature of finance is that it cannot be profitable unless it is significantly leveraged... and as long as there is debt, there can be failure and contagion.

Whatever you tax you get less of.

History has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.

By far the most significant event in finance during the past decade has been the extraordinary development and expansion of financial derivatives.

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.

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.