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

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

I commissioned two political experts to advise me about what I could do to oppose the re-election of President Bush.

Taking this view, it is possible to see financial markets as a laboratory for testing hypotheses, albeit not strictly scientific ones. The truth is, successful investing is a kind of alchemy.

The lower interest rates fueled housing and consumption booms in countries such as Spain and Ireland. At the same time, Germany, struggling with the burdens of reunification, tightened its belt and became more competitive. All this led to a wide divergence in economic performance. Europe became divided into creditor and debtor countries.

My original intention was to spend the money in my lifetime.

When a long-term trend loses it’s momentum, short-term volatility tends to rise. It is easy to see why that should be so: the trend-following crowd is disoriented.