Quotes of the day

For four hundred years since Bacon and Descartes led the way, science has raced ahead by following both paths simultaneously. Neither Baconian empiricism nor Cartesian dogmatism has the power to elucidate Nature's secrets by itself, but both together have been amazingly successful.--Freeman Dyson

Desperate to preserve the value of asset prices inflated by this huge liquidity bubble, policy makers have avoided the painful solution. The liquidity injections, the bailout programs, and the fiscal-stimulus packages try to sustain asset prices, when these prices need to fall to market levels so they can be cleared. The policy makers have just prolonged the crisis.--David Roche

The theory (a simple Keynesian macroeconomic model) implicitly assumes that the government is better than the private market at marshaling idle resources to produce useful stuff. Unemployed labor and capital can be utilized at essentially zero social cost, but the private market is somehow unable to figure any of this out. In other words, there is something wrong with the price system.--Robert Barro

On wiretaps, interrogations and now Gitmo, the new Administration is discovering that the left-wing attack lines against Bush policies are mostly simplistic illusions. Now those critics are Mr. Obama's problem.--WSJ Editorial Board

We really shouldn't be surprised if Congress approves Geithner's appointment, given ethical standards of Congress.--Pillard, in comment to CNBC

[Timothy Geithner] acknowledged signing an IMF statement at the time that he understood he had been reimbursed to pay those self-employment taxes, adding that he should have read the statement more carefully. Millions of Americans have said the same thing about the tax code during an IRS audit, earning less forgiveness.--WSJ Editorial Board

Would you answer my question rather than dancing around it -- please?--Senator Jon Kyl, in questioning Timothy Geithner about still not paying back all of his back taxes

I actually saw Bill [Belichick] fly once, which was just incredible to see,” Light deadpanned yesterday. “He literally hovered, then flew almost Superman-like across to the other side of the practice facility. You can write that down. I saw it happen.--Matt Light