It is a sobering fact that the prominence of central banks in this century has coincided with a general tendency towards more inflation, not less. [I]f the overriding objective is price stability, we did better with the nineteenth-century gold standard and passive central banks, with currency boards, or even with 'free banking.' The truly unique power of a central bank, after all, is the power to create money, and ultimately the power to create is the power to destroy.

I am suspicious of the idea of a new paradigm, to use that word, an entirely new structure of the economy.

It was probably a mistake to allow gold to rise so high.

I wish someone would give me one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth — one shred of evidence.

It was the biggest inflation and the most sustained inflation that the United States had ever had.

When people begin anticipating inflation, it doesn't do you any good anymore, because any benefit of inflation comes from the fact that you do better than you thought you were going to do.

The standard of living of the average American has to decline.