I fancied myself as some kind of god or an economic reformer like Keynes

Studying economics is not a good preparation for dealing with it.

If the terrorists have the sympathy of people, it's much harder to find them. So we need people on our side, and that leads us to be responsible leaders of the world, show some concern with the problems.

The scope for improvement is infinite, precisely because perfection is unattainable.

Mankind's ability to understand and control the forces of nature greatly exceeds our ability to govern ourselves

The securitisation of mortgages added a new dimension of systemic risk. Financial engineers claimed they were reducing risks through geographic diversification: in fact they were increasing them by creating an agency problem. The agents were more interested in maximising fee income than in protecting the interests of bondholders. That is the verity that was ignored by regulators and market participants alike.

Short term volatility is greatest at turning points and diminishes as a trend becomes established