Ronald Reagan Quotes

Unregulated derivatives like credit default swaps threaten our regulated markets, or indeed our economy without any Federal agency knowing about it.

Not raising the debt ceiling is not an automatic trigger for a default.

I don't think Congress, in general, has done a good job articulating to the American public how inextricably linked our credit markets are to our entire economic system.

Greece could default on its debts and even exit currency bloc if it cannot deliver reforms.

What would a loss of confidence in the dollar actually look like? Gold going absolutely nuts.

I want to see an end to sovereign risk questions over Australia.

Bubbles are best identified by credit excesses, not valuation excesses. And there's no bigger credit excess than in China.

The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany.

If Freddie Mac is unable to raise capital, it could spark a political and financial crisis.

The debt ceiling at some point has to be raised. I don't think there's anybody that questions the fact that if we ended up getting in a situation where the U.S. government was sending out IOUs like the state of California did at one point, that ends up creating quite a brand problem for our country.

My concern as a citizen and as a money manager is, Oh my God, at what point does a 'whoa' moment happen to these people who own $30 trillion fixed income instruments?

In this age, if the currency of a major nation collapses, or its access to borrowing ends, it just can't function.

The world is constantly in a race to the top, in terms of there's a limited amount of capital and you've got to figure where it's going. And if your currency is weakening, that means you're paying a load.

Well what would happen is that if Greece defaulted and couldn't pay its debts, all the Greek bonds that are held in other banking systems across Western Europe would suddenly have no value. You could as a knock-on effect create a banking crisis in Western Europe.

Spain is finding it very difficult to finance itself with sovereign debt risk premium so high.

France is the country where the money falls apart and you can't tear the toilet paper.

I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

We go on in Congress as when you left us …. Resolves have been passed upon Resolves--and letter after letter has been sent to the deficient States, and all without the desired effect. We are without money or the prospect of it in the Federal Treasury; and the States, many of them, care so little about the Union, that they take no measures to keep a representation in Congress.

Defaulting on our [national] debt is defaulting on America.

I was secretary of the Treasury when the credit bubble burst, so I think it's fair to say that I know a little bit about risk, assessing outcomes, and problem-solving.

As long as the dollar remains in high esteem as a trade currency, America can continue to spend more than it earns. But when the day arrives - as it certainly must - when the dollar tumbles and foreigners no longer want it, the free ride will be over.

For my own part, I did not see and did not appreciate what the risks were with securitization, the credit ratings agencies, the shadow banking system, the S.I.V.’s — I didn’t see any of that coming until it happened.

Speculation in land may be necessary to capitalism, but speculative orgies periodically become a quagmire of destruction for capital itself.

All the risky things that were happening back in ’06 and ‘07 are back again to the same level, if not more. So we are in the beginning of a credit bubble, but just the beginning.

Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes a bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done.