Intelligence is called the world's second oldest profession for a reason. Everyone does it.

You know, when the cost of capital goes down, when credit becomes cheap, people start taking greater and greater risks.

American influence is not what it used to be.

If we didn't have the rest of the world growing, the United States economy would be in much worse shape than it is today.

China is ruthlessly pragmatic. It supports North Korea for its own selfish interests. And I believe that China no longer considers us an ally. The current president, Xi Jinping, cultivates close relations with South Korea. He has never met with me, the leader of North Korea, something that the leader of China has always done. At the grand celebrations in Beijing two years ago commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, he placed the president of Russia and the president of South Korea at his side. In North Korea, we pay a lot of attention to ceremonies and what they signal.

There is very strong historical data that suggest the way societies grow is by making large, long-term investments.

In a very weak economy, when you say 'cut government spending,' what you mean is you're laying off school teachers and you're de-funding various programs that put money into the economy. This means you have more unemployed people that then draw unemployment benefits and don't pay taxes.