What's the single most important thing to learn from an economics course today? What I tried to leave my students with is the view that the invisible hand is more powerful than the hidden hand. Things will happen in well-organized efforts without direction, controls, plans. That's the consensus among economists. That's the Hayek legacy.

It used to be said that when the U.S. sneezed, the world caught a cold. The opposite is equally true today.

Where countries have been able to carry through on their reform commitments - as in Korea, Thailand and the Philippines - results are starting to come in the form of lower interest rates, new investment and increased growth.

Start with the idea that you can't repeal the laws of economics. Even if they are inconvenient.

Investment in girls' education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world.

Contagion has become very much a phenomenon, and it's a phenomenon of globalization.

We must recognise that in an integrated world, trade cannot be divorced from other concerns. We need to promote free trade and serious global efforts with respect to common problems even as we support every nation's right to chart its own course.