The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses.

How much would you pay to avoid a second Depression?

A collapse in U.S. stock prices certainly would cause a lot of white knuckles on Wall Street. But what effect would it have on the broader U.S. economy? If Wall Street crashes, does Main Street follow? Not necessarily.

In the future, my communications with the public and with the markets will be entirely through regular and formal channels.

It must be awfully frustrating to get a small raise at work and then have it all eaten by a higher cost of commuting.

I think one of the lessons of the Depression - and this is something that Franklin Roosevelt demonstrated - was that when orthodoxy fails, then you need to try new things. And he was very willing to try unorthodox approaches when the orthodox approach had shown that it was not adequate.

One might as well try to perform brain surgery with a sledgehammer.