Quotes from Martin Wolf

The essence of the contemporary monetary system is creation of money, out of nothing, by private banks' often foolish lending.

Those who condemn the immorality of liberal capitalism do so in comparison with a society of saints that has never existed—and never will

A country with secure property rights, scientific inquiry and technological innovation will become richer. But, since division of labour is limited by the size of the market, it will also benefit from trade, not just in goods and services, but in ideas, capital and people. The smaller a country is, the greater the benefits. Trade is far cheaper than empire, just as internal development is a less costly route to prosperity than plunder. This was the heart of Angell's argument.

Depressions are indeed one of the states a capitalist economy can fall into. An economic theory that does not incorporate that possibility is as relevant as a theory of biology that excludes the risk of extinctions, a theory of the body that excludes the risk of heart attacks, or a theory of bridge-building that excludes the risk of collapse.

Governments had socialized the liabilities of the core institutions of the global financial system.

As Minsky argued, stability destabilizes. This is an aspect of what George Soros, the successful speculator and innovative economic thinker, calls 'reflexivity': the way human beings think determines the reality in which they live.

banks were 'international in life, but national in death'.

In a country supposedly dedicated to the ideals of market economics, arguably the most important social function of finance Ã¢â'¬â€œ lending for home purchase Ã¢â'¬â€œ had become almost completely nationalized.

many of their supporters attribute the failure to "traitors"; belief in the effectiveness of institutions diminishes; and finally a post-populist recession causes demoralization, which leads to yet another enfeebling bout of populism. Some countries—Argentina is the paradigmatic example—seem unable to escape from such a spiral of mistrust, failure, and yet more mistrust.

Can 'It' – a Great Depression – happen again? And if 'It' can happen why didn't 'It' occur in the years since World War II? These are questions that naturally follow from both the historical record and the comparative success of the past thirty-five years. To answer these questions it is necessary to have an economic theory which makes great depressions one of the possible states in which our type of capitalist economy can find itself.

The attempt to resolve its problems by turning the Eurozone into a bigger Germany is going to prove unworkable. If this is not understood – and it is not, as yet, where it matters – further crises seem certain.

There is no room for being creative in today's business... Except for finding creative ways to be inefficient.