When trust is lost, a nation's ability to transact business is palpably undermined.

Excessive optimism sows the seeds of its own reversal.

Now, I only play very occasionally, and in fact, more piano than clarinet or sax.

The arts develop skills and habits of mind that are important for workers in the new economy of ideas.

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

Given our inevitably incomplete knowledge about key structural aspects of our ever-changing economy and the sometimes asymmetric costs or benefits of particular outcomes, a central bank... need to consider not only the most likely future path for the economy but also the distribution of possible outcomes about that path. They then need to reach a judgment about the probabilities, costs, and benefits of the various possible outcomes under alternative choices for policy.

I do not deny that many appear to have succeeded in a material way by cutting corners and by manipulating associates, both in their professional and in their personal lives. But material success is possible in this world and far more satisfying when it comes without exploiting others.