If you look at the history of the American capital market, there's probably no innovation more important than the idea of generally accepted accountancy principles.

But ultimately what I was impressed by during my years in government was how much the intellectual climate and the prevailing intellectual notions constrained and represented the universe within which the discourse took place.

Contagion has become very much a phenomenon, and it's a phenomenon of globalization.

Blaming speculators as a response to financial crisis goes back at least to the Greeks. It's almost always the wrong response.