The financial markets play an active role in determining what's going to happen, how the economy is going to function.

Unfortunately, the more complex the system, the greater the room for error.

Germans tend to forget now that the euro was largely a Franco-German creation. No country has benefited more from the euro than Germany, both politically and economically. Therefore what has happened as a result of the introduction of the euro is largely Germany's its responsibility.

You need a government that believes in government. It also believes in markets and wants to give markets the best, the greatest opportunity, but is trying to govern well.

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

The worse a situation becomes the less it takes to turn it around, the bigger the upside.

Giving government aid to a bank basically transforms it into a utility. The huge salaries in this sector are only a symptom of a more profound misalignment. The profitability of the finance industry has been excessive. [...] That was absurd.