Quotes from Henry Paulson

Many of the Western democracies - including the U.S. - have a problem that voters want benefits they don't want to pay for.

Anticompetitive practices hurt Chinese private firms nearly as much as foreign ones.

Predators, they're the best coal miners' canary. When they're gone, you've got a sick ecosystem.

When I worry about risks, I worry about the biggest ones, particularly those that are difficult to predict - the ones I call small but deep holes. While odds are you will avoid them, if you do fall in one, it's a long way down and nearly impossible to claw your way out.

When it comes to the presidency, I will not vote for Donald Trump.

When the economy is growing, there's a lot that can be done to deal with the deficit.

We need a new tax system. We need entitlement reform. We need immigration reform. These are not easy things. But it is going to take our political system working better.

As Americans, we shouldn't like bailouts. Where I come from, if someone takes a risk and they're going to make the profit from that risk, they shouldn't have the taxpayer pay for the losses.

I don't take lightly ever putting the taxpayer on the line to support an institution.

Taxpayer money should not have to be spent to save a misguided and mismanaged enterprise.

China saves too much, produces too much, sells too much to Americans and consumes too little.

Every good businessman or woman carefully analyzes all the available facts before making a decision.

I've always said to everyone that ever worked for me, if you get too dug in on a position, the facts change, and you don't change to adapt to the facts, you will never be successful.

I'm telling you that there is no silver bullet to keep home prices from going down or to prevent all foreclosures.

As we work to promote greater economic opportunity for the American people, we must always remember that the American economy is deeply integrated with the global economy. That brings challenges but even greater opportunities.

All of us would like to have our children and their grandchildren grow up with at least the level of prosperity that we had. In the U.S., we seem to be very selfish because the older generation is not making the sacrifices.

I don't know anyone that says, 'Boy, I had a great career, and I'm happy because I screwed up my life outside of my career, my family life.' There's no one that feels that way.

I'd have liked to have been another Faulkner, of course.

A Fed loan to Lehman Brothers would not have prevented a bankruptcy.

I can't help but think what would have happened if a divisive character such as Trump were president during the 2008 financial crisis, at a time when leadership, compromise, and careful analysis were critical.

If the financial system collapses, it's really, really hard to put it back together again.

The Fed has neither the clear statutory authority nor the mandate to anticipate and deal with risks across our entire financial system.

An AIG failure would have been devastating to the financial system and to the economy.

No matter how the financial system is set up, no matter what the economic system is, as long as you have people, you're going to have financial crises; you're going to have bubbles that manifest themselves in the financial system.