I'm A Rock Star Among Geeks, Wonks,

What We Need To Understand Is, One, That There Are Market Failures; And Two, That There Are Things Like Asset Bubbles And Irrational Exuberance. There Are Periods Of Booms, Bubbles, And Manias. These Things, If Left To Themselves, Can Lead To Crashes, To Busts, To Panics.

I Believe, Unlike People That Are Totally Free-market, Laissez-faire Fundamentalists, That There Is An Important Role That The Government Can Play - One, In Providing Public Goods, Whether It's Education, Health Care, Or Other Things, And Two, Supervising Countercyclical Policy - Stimulus, Whether It's Monetary, Fiscal, Or Otherwise.

I Believe In Market Economics. But To Paraphrase Churchill - Who Said This About Democracy And Political Regimes - A Market Economy Might Be The Worst Economic Regime Available, Apart From The Alternatives. I Believe That People React To Incentives, That Incentives Matter, And That Prices Reflect The Way Things Should Be Allocated. But I Also Believe That Market Economies Sometimes Have Market Failures, And When These Occur, There's A Role For Prudential - Not Excessive - Regulation Of The Financial System.

Edward Conard Provides A Provocative Interpretation Of The Causes Of The Global Financial Crisis And The Policies Needed To Return To Rapid Growth. Whether You Agree Or Not, This Analysis Is Well Worth Reading.

I Believe Investors Should Invest For The Long Run, So I Don't Buy And Sell. I Usually Maintain The Classic Index Of Global Equities, Diversified U.s. And Global And Emerging Markets, And When The Risk Is Larger, I Diminish The Amount In Global Equities And Put More Into Liquid Assets - But Very Irregularly.