Indeed, better risk management may be the only truly necessary element of success in banking.

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.

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

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.

Gold, unlike all other commodities, is a currency...and the major thrust in the demand for gold is not for jewelry. It's not for anything other than an escape from what is perceived to be a fiat money system, paper money, that seems to be deteriorating.

If you think you understand what I am saying you do not understand what I am saying.

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.