History demonstrates that participants in financial markets are susceptible to waves of optimism. Excessive optimism shows the seeds of its own reversal in the form of imbalances that tend to grow over time.

...our market system depends critically on trust-trust in the word of our colleagues and trust in the word of those with whom we do business.

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

History cannot be reduced to a set of statistics and probabilities.

Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world. Fiat money in extremis is accepted by nobody. Gold is always accepted.

I'm always amazed that my wife can handle different subjects - one day politics, the next day foreign policy. And she always has so much fun doing it. We make a good team.

Improvements in lending practices driven by information technology have enabled lenders to reach out to households with previously unrecognized borrowing capacities.