If you destroy a firm, you can't pull it out of bankruptcy overnight.

I think that for the developing world there are many versions of capitalism, and countries have to choose one that's appropriate.

Wall Street banks have used the same tactic that Bush used in the war on terror - fear - and they've basically said that if you don't do what we tell you, the sky will fall. If you don't do what we tell you, it will be the end of capitalism as we know it. The failure of Lehman Brothers lent some credence to those fears.

Nationalization of private debts undermines prudential lender behavior and is a government intervention in the market.

During my three years as chief economist of the World Bank, labor market issues were looked at through the lens of neoclassical economics. A standard message was to increase labor market flexibility. The not-so-subtle subtext was to lower wages and lay off unneeded workers.

You can't overestimate what happens when you encourage regulators to believe that the goal of regulation is not to regulate.

We are helping the people that [George W.]Bush says are evil. Teheran couldn't be happier about the high oil prices resulting from the Iraq war.