“The sources of deflation are not a mystery. Deflation is in almost all cases a side effect of a collapse of aggregate demand.. a drop in spending so severe that producers must cut prices on an ongoing basis in order to find buyers.”

While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.

It’s the price of success: people start to think you’re omnipotent.

Investment banks manage to go bankrupt through their investment-banking activities, commercial banks manage to go bankrupt through their commercial-banking activities.

Economics is a highly sophisticated field of thought that is superb at explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong. About the future, not so much.

The economist John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run, we are all dead. If he were around today he might say that, in the long run, we are all on Social Security and Medicare.

Not all information is beneficial.

So it’s important, as it affects overall levels of production and employment in the U.S. There are many domestic industries doing well in the United States, notwithstanding a strong dollar.

I and others were mistaken early on in saying that the subprime crisis would be contained. The causal relationship between the housing problem and the broad financial system was very complex and difficult to predict.

Under current law, on January 1, 2013, there’s going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases.

The people who best use their advantages, or overcome adversity, and work honestly are those most worthy of admiration.

The lesson of history is that you do not get a sustained economic recovery as long as the financial system is in crisis.

We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.

I served seven years as the chair of the Princeton economics department where I had responsibility for major policy decisions, such as whether to serve bagels or doughnuts at the department coffee hour.

[Virtual Currencies] may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations Promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.

Monetary policy cannot do much about long-run growth, all we can try to do is to try to smooth out periods where the economy is depressed because of lack of demand

Importantly, in the 1930s, in the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve, despite its mandate, was quite passive and, as a result, financial crisis became very severe, lasted essentially from 1929 to 1933.

I don’t think it’s fair – you get married, you give your wife a wedding ring. I think you should give her a mood ring.

I get to sing a great song called “Proud of your boy” which was by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman and they were so hurt when it had to be cut from the film [Aladdin].

You see, Hansel and Gretel don’t just show up at the end of this story. They show up. And then they get their heads cut off. Just thought you’d like to know.

This is what I find most magnetic about successful givers: they get to the top without cutting others down, finding ways of expanding the pie that benefit themselves and the people around them.

Procrastinate strategically… Procrastination may be the enemy of productivity but it can be a valuable resource for creativity.

Every age cuts and pastes history to suit its own purposes; art always has an ax to grind.

In writing, as in medicine, there are no short cuts. You need stamina.

This is my life, I thought…I have excised the cancer from my past, cut it out; I have crossed the high plains, descended into the desert, traversed oceans, and planted my feet in new soil