Partly, the Russian system succeeds because, in contrast to the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower.

A [New Yorker ] is what it has always been. It combines those who pursue the truth with those who pursue the rewards of orthodoxy and those who pursue what is comfortable to the rich.

Of late I have searched diligently to discover the advantages of age, and there is, I have concluded, only one. It is that lovely women treat your approaches with understanding rather than with disdain.

I've been writing a book called The Economics of Innocent Fraud. I published part of it already in The Progressive ("Free Market Fraud," January 1999). But I've been interrupted these last few months. It deals with all of the things we do, in an innocent way, to cover up the truth.

The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.

But now, as throughout history, financial capacity and political perspicacity are inversely correlated.

No hungry man who is also sober can be persuaded to use his last dollar for anything but food.