If we made an income pyramid out of a child's blocks, with each layer portraying $1,000 of income, the peak would be far higher than the Eiffel Tower, but almost all of us would be within a yard of the ground.

Anyone with special abilities earns a differential return on that flair, which we economists call a rent. Those few with extraordinary P.Q. (Performance Quotient) will not give away such rent to the Ford Foundation or the local bank trust department. They have too high an I.Q. for that.

Reasonable men are not reasonable when you're in the bubbles which have characterized capitalism since the beginning of time.

Economists have much to be humble about.

Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.

This message (that attempting to beat the market is futile) can never be sold on Wall Street because it is in effect telling stock analysts to drop dead.

It is not easy to get rich in Las Vegas, at Churchill Downs, or at the local Merrill Lynch office.