I have concluded that most PhD economists under appraise the power of the common-stock-based "wealth effect," under current extreme conditions... "Wealth effects" involve mathematical puzzles that are not nearly so well worked out as physics theories and never can be... What has happened in Japan over roughly the last ten years has shaken up academic economics, as it obviously should, creating strong worries about recession from "wealth effects" in reverse.

In investment management today, everybody wants not only to win, but to have a yearly outcome path that never diverges very much from a standard path except on the upside. Well, that is a very artificial, crazy construct. That's the equivalent in investment management to the custom of binding the feet of Chinese women

We have a high moral responsibility to be rational

Capitalism is a pretty brutal place.

The ethos of not fooling yourself is one of the best you could possibly have. It's powerful because it's so rare.

If mutual fund directors are independent, then I'm the lead character in the Bolshoi Ballet.

You have to learn to be a follower before you become a leader.