Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman.

What works for Germany can't work for the rest of Europe: No country can run a chronic surplus without others running deficits.

The generally accepted view is that markets are always right -- that is, market prices tend to discount future developments accurately even when it is unclear what those developments are. I start with the opposite view. I believe the market prices are always wrong in the sense that they present a biased view of the future.

The US needs a cap and trade system with auctioning of licenses for emissions rights. The revenues from these auctions can be used to launch a new, environmentally friendly energy policy. That would be yet another federal program that could help us to overcome the stagnation.

Any central bank should only be in charge of liquidity. Solvency is a matter for the treasury.

Fundamental analysis seeks to establish how underlying values are reflected in stock prices, whereas the theory of reflexivity shows how stock prices can influence underlying values

Of course, speculation will always make a crisis worse. If there is a weak point, it will expose it.