There is a time for weighing evidence and a time for acting. And if there's one thing I've learned throughout my work in finance, government, and conservation, it is to act before problems become too big to manage.
Henry PaulsonRead
If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution.
Interpretation
Financial institutions operating in the U.S. affect American citizens similarly, regardless of their liquidity status.
Henry Paulson emphasizes that financial institutions' operations within the U.S., particularly those that hire American workers, directly impact the economy and the well-being of the American people. He highlights that the liquidity of these institutions is less relevant than their presence and engagement in the American economic landscape, implying that their challenges can have widespread repercussions for individuals and communities alike.
In practice
During a financial seminar discussing the recent economic downturn.
There is a time for weighing evidence and a time for acting. And if there's one thing I've learned throughout my work in finance, government, and conservation, it is to act before problems become too big to manage.
In all my life, I've been trained that when there's a big problem, you run toward it.
Complexity and interconnectedness matter as much as size in assessing risk in banking.
Every global concern - economic, environmental or security-related - can be addressed more effectively when the U.S. and China work together.
I think history shows that countries have to have some kind of a threshold level of economic success before they begin to have the means and the will to focus on the environment.
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.
The true law of economics is chance, and we learned people arbitrarily seize on a few moments and establish them as laws.
Thus, the weight of my criticism is directed against the inadequacy of the theoretical foundations of the laissez-faire doctrine upon which I was brought up and for many years I taught
Tax breaks and other financial breaks that favor the wealthiest among us do not create greater prosperity for all; they simply siphon off more and more money to those who already have it, and more and more money away from those who do not.
America's role in the global economy inevitably was going to diminish; we're smaller relative to - as China, India, other emerging markets grow.
The role of liquidity in systemic events provides yet another reason why, in the future, a more system wide or macroprudential approach to regulation is needed.
It is a [disputed] question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than of specie [gold and silver coin], is a good or an evil I believe it to be one of those cases where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by ruin.
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