Mankind's Ability To Understand And Control The

A Lot Of The Evil In The World Is Actually Not Intentional. A Lot Of People In The Financial System Did A Lot Of Damage Without Intending To.

When You Sell Options, You Get Paid For Assuming Risk. That Can Be A Profitable Business, But It Does Not Mix Well With The Risks Inherent In A Leveraged Portfolio.

There Is No Doubt That The Countries That Now Have A Very Large Debt Have Not Introduced The Kind Of Structural Reforms That Germany Did And Are Therefore At A Disadvantage. But The Problem Is That This Disadvantage Is Becoming Even More Pronounced Through The Punitive Policies In Place.

The Prevailing Wisdom Is That Markets Are Always Right. I Take The Opposite Position. I Assume That Markets Are Always Wrong.

Financial Markets Are Supposed To Swing Like A Pendulum: They May Fluctuate Wildly In Response To Exogenous Shocks, But Eventually They Are Supposed To Come To Rest At An Equilibrium Point And That Point Is Supposed To Be The Same Irrespective Of The Interim Fluctuations. Instead, As I Told Congress, Financial Markets Behaved More Like A Wrecking Ball, Swinging From Country To Country And Knocking Over The Weaker Ones. It Is Difficult To Escape The Conclusion That The International Financial System Itself Constituted The Main Ingredient In The Meltdown Process.