You can't run the economy on BMWs alone. If the average person is in a pickle, how do you have a healthy economy?

Americans are just about the worst at dealing with long-term problems, down there with Uzbekistan, but they respond to a market signal better than almost anyone. They roll the dice bigger and quicker than most.

Investment bubbles and high animal spirits do not materialize out of thin air. They need extremely favorable economic fundamentals together with free and easy, cheap credit, and they need it for at least two or three years. Importantly, they also need serial pleasant surprises in such critical variables as global GNP growth.

Capitalism believes that its remit is exclusively to make maximum short-term profits.

Volatility is a symptom that people have no idea of the underlying value.

Although value is a weak force in any single year, it becomes a monster over several years. Like gravity, it slowly wears down the opposition.

The potential for alternative energy sources, mainly solar and wind power, to completely replace coal and gas for utility generation globally is, I think, certain. The question is only whether it takes 30 years or 70 years.