The ascent of money has been essential to the ascent of man.

When bond prices fall, interest rates soar, with painful consequences for all borrowers.

You really struggle to be a successful empire if you are also the world's biggest debtor.

When I first came to Oxford, I struggled to feel comfortable in an Anglican, public school-dominated institution.

The West may collapse very suddenly. Complex civilizations do that, because they operate, most of the time, on the edge of chaos.

The British press has an insatiable appetite for making public things that should be private. It's a prurience that I've never understood.

All empires have depended on local legitimacy and local collaboration; they are not based primarily on coercion. An imperial rule that relies wholly on coercion can't endure. It's too expensive.