I agree with people who say we want more income equality; we want more consumer protection; and we want sounder banks. I agree with all that.

You don't run a business hoping you don't have a recession.

You cannot prove this in real time, but when economists 20 years from now write a book on the recovery, it may well be entitled, It could have been much better.

I wanted to start by saying that the eurozone - there are two reasons they formed the European Union. One is for political peace and rationalization. And I think that's a good thing for a continent that went through hundreds of years of wars.

Europe is the most complicated place, in my opinion.

I think one could argue that there's more political input into the regulatory side, and on the regulatory side there seem to be fewer people with financial and banking experience - there are more lawyers, academics, economists, maybe politicians now.

You can design a mortgage system that is different without a Fannie and Freddie, but there are principles you have to have, to have a good system.