“Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world.”

History has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.

Such caution seems especially warranted with regard to the sharp rise in equity prices during the past two years. These gains have obviously raised questions of sustainability.

Derivatives have permitted the unbundling of financial risks.

Greenspan, who knew so much more than most, knew far less than most supposed.

It has been my experience that competency in mathematics, both in numerical manipulations and in understanding its conceptual foundations.

If I’ve made myself clear, I’ve misspoken.

…our market system depends critically on trust-trust in the word of our colleagues and trust in the word of those with whom we do business.

Excessive optimism sows the seeds of its own reversal.

Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the ‘hidden’ confiscation of wealth.

Regulation – which is based on force and fear – undermines the moral base of business dealings. It becomes cheaper to bribe a building inspector than to meet his standards of construction. Protection of the consumer by regulation is thus illusory.

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation.

The need for values is inbred. Their content is not.

American and British authorities were also concerned about violence in an area that harbors a resource indispensable for the functioning of the word economy.

If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said.

I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organisations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.

Any onset of increased investor caution elevates risk premiums and, as a consequence, lowers asset values and promotes the liquidation of the debt that supported higher asset prices.

I never went after character payments. I’m pretty much terrible at naming characters, so I usually name them after people I know.

Every professional athlete owes a debt of gratitude to the fans and management, and pays an installment every time he plays. He should never miss a payment.

In FY 2006, interest payments alone on the national debt cost us $406 billion. . . . What a waste. . . .

The nature of the duties to be performed, the method of payment, the form of supervision, the tenure system, the market in which the workers find jobs, and the physical hazzards are all very different from the way things are in other occupations.

I was around when my father finished the last payment of his house.

If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she’d get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don’t mean she wouldn’t pay the bank, but the children always came first.

Even though some down payments are borrowed, it would take a large, and historically most unusual, fall in home prices to wipe out a significant part of home equity.

It’s funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can’t afford the music.