We have very stable, solid economy; we are going through challenging times.

When you start cutting government expenditure, at some point you are cutting essential services rather than excessive services. So you have to take into account the social costs involved in cutting government spending.

We have to be careful of not injecting more uncertainty than economy can handle

Let us remember that postponement of tapering is only that-a postponementLet's not lose the chance, the warning that we have been given, because this is going to come back and what we need to do is put our house in order before.

We are taking a greater chance of having another crash at a time when the world is less capable of bearing the cost.

I think the willingness to listen is really a matter of confidence. You can't be so superconfident in your abilities that you ignore what others say, and you can't be so diffident in your abilities that you think that if they say something, you will be so taken in that you will do the wrong thing. When you are confident about your abilities and also fully aware of what you don't know you are willing to listen to outside experts with the full sense that if you don't find it worthwhile you will ignore it.

Because the free market system is so weak politically, the forms of capitalism that are experienced in many countries are very far from the ideal. They are a corrupted version, in which powerful interests prevent competition from playing its natural, healthy role.