Putin probably, almost certainly, thinks that one of the great disasters of the 20th century was the demise of the Soviet Union. It's very obvious that he's trying to work its way back and maintain something similar to that sort of institution.
The person I liked the best was Gerald R. Ford. He was the most decent man in politics I ever had any relationships with.
I stated that I'm a libertarian Republican, which means I believe in a series of issues, such as smaller government, constraint on budget deficits, free markets, globalization, and a whole series of other things, including welfare reform.
Every economy exists, no matter what the level of democracy, has elements of crony capitalism. It's - given human nature and given the democratic structures, which we all, I assume, adhere to, that is an inevitable consequence.
The culture of Greece is not the same as the culture of Germany, and to fuse them into a single unit is extremely difficult.
One of the major problems with China is that its innovation is largely borrowed technology.
The problem is you cannot have free global trade with highly restrictive, regulated domestic markets.
There is a limit to how much the United States Treasury can borrow.
I'm a free-market economist from years and years back, and I've never veered from that.
I think the whole issue of a debt ceiling makes no sense to me whatsoever. Anybody who is remotely adroit at arithmetic doesn't need a debt ceiling to tell you where you are.
There is a huge number of people outside our borders who would love to come here. In fact, many of them come here, get well educated, and then are required to leave... This is a factor in income inequality.
What I see in the corporate sector is very clearly an issue of a major shortfall in the issue of, what some people call confidence, but whatever you want to call it. Clearly people are looking out in the very distant future and they are saying that it is too complex.
It's only when the markets are perceived to have exhausted themselves on the downside that they turn. Trying to prevent them from going down just merely prolongs the agony.
Europe is very critical to the United States in the sense not only do we have a fourth of our exports there, but more importantly, a significant proportion of the foreign affiliate profits in fact, half of U.S. corporations, are in Europe.
Fear invariably and universally induces disengagement, and disengagement is negative division of labor.
Since 1948 I have spent every single day thinking how the economic and political worlds have changed.
If somebody had said to me in June or July of 1987, 'We'd like you to become chairman of the Federal Reserve, but you're never allowed to discuss any economics after you leave,' I'd have said, 'Forget it.' What do they want me to do? Become an anthropologist?'
The purpose of a politician is to be a leader. A politician has to lead. Otherwise he's just a follower.
The central focus of what we are doing at the Fed is to keep inflation from accelerating - and preferably decelerating.
I was sort of shocked when it all of a sudden turned out that I got all A's through college, with the exception of two B's in the first term. I never envisaged myself as summa cum laude.
