“I don’t think it’s possible for the Fed to end its easy-money policies in a trouble-free manner.”

Revolutions are something you see only in retrospect.

When trust is lost, a nation’s ability to transact business is palpably undermined.

It keeps interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and frees savings to finance increases in the capital stock, thereby boosting productivity and real incomes.

The number one problem in today’s generation and economy is the lack of financial literacy.

Any informed borrower is simply less vulnerable to fraud and abuse.

The free lunch has still to be invented.

Some succeed for a time. But while there may occasionally be mis-configurations among market prices that allow abnormal returns, they do not persist.

The gut-feel of the 55-year old trader is more important than the mathematical elegance of the 25-year old genius.

Since I’ve become a central banker, I’ve learned to mumble with great incoherence.

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.

History cannot be reduced to a set of statistics and probabilities.

Nor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.

The companies could hire the educated workers they need. And those workers would compete with high-income people, driving more income equality.

I have one other issue I’d like to throw on the table. I hesitate to do it, but let me tell you some of the issues that are involved here.

Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices.

There is no safe store of value. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the hidden confiscation of wealth.

End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.

For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

All’s well that ends better.

I will never find the faces for all the goodbyes I’ve made.

For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

For abundance and endless consumption are the ideals of the poor: they are the mirage in the desert of misery.

It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.

My heart goes out to everyone as we see the end of this year and as we anticipate the new one. We’re in this together.