You can lead a happy life if you recognize that it's limited and completely unpredictable from one moment to the next.

If there are possibilities for strengthening investments, they will not fail because of us. Emmanuel Macron is right when he says that we need to do more and talk less.

Greece's debts are all denominated in euros, but it isn't clear who holds how much of those debts. For that reason, the consequences of a national bankruptcy would be incalculable. Greece is just as systemically important as a major bank.

My job is not to predict everything that might happen in the future, but to address what we can do today.

At the moment we are facing a whole collection of difficult to forecast developments from the situation in China and the oil-price crash to the worrying news from some banks in Europe and the US. All of that is linked: Worldwide company debt is high and there is a lot of money in circulation. That is why necessary structural reforms are not being made.

Reliability is the precondition for trust.

It is true that no member state can be required to make payments to others. But if countries want to offer voluntary assistance, as in the Greek case, this isn't only allowed, but it's also in Germany's interest. We all benefit by ensuring the stability of the euro zone.