It’s easy to see why politicians would be drawn to the populist pose. First, it makes everything so simple. The economic crisis was caused by a complex web of factors, including global imbalances caused by the rise of China. But with the populist narrative, you can just blame Goldman Sachs.

I'm thankful that we live in a crassly commercial, polarized culture, so media jackals like me have a lot of work to do.

We have an international system. We all profit from it. Trade profits from it. Peace. We can travel around the world because of it. And part of that system is certain ideas, the certain ideas you can't invade other countries for no reason. You can't commit genocide. You can't - rogue regimes can't have nuclear weapons, and you can't gas your own people.

Maybe you're willing to tolerate a lot of bigotry from Donald Trump if you say, just change things, just change things.

Donald Trump just needs the ego fed all the time.

If I had to fault President [Barack] Obama, I would say that sometimes governs like a visitor from a morally superior civilization.

Friendship allows you to see your own life but with a second sympathetic self.