I think my wife would take objection to any characterization of me as perfect.

I think that whether you're on the right or on the left as an economist or as a policy maker, every serious analyst I know agrees that at some point you have to deal with entitlements.

You can actually make a lot of money and do a lot of good in the world. I don't see those things as being in opposition to one another. I never have.

Economic growth creates jobs, and countries grow when they educate their people and pursue policies that encourage households to save, existing businesses to invest, and entrepreneurs to innovate and create new markets.

Between 2001 and 2011, Brazil lifted 20 million people out of poverty and into its growing middle class, and in the last quarter of the twentieth century Botswana's gross domestic product per capita grew faster than that of any other country on the planet. The once-labeled 'Third World' is edging its way into the 'First World.'

Disciplined governments do not engage in the economic equivalent of binge eating followed by crash dieting.

As an economist, I'm aware that life is full of trade offs.