Wisdom in fragments

Think of "branding" as burning in a name on an animal such as a cow so that the cow's owner would be known. This protects the owner in the event that the animal is stolen. But we can use the name "branding" whenever anyone affixes their name to something that is available for sale.

Father of Modern Marketing & Prolific Management Author

Most risk managers on Wall St, and practically all staff members in institutions like the Fed, IMF and elsewhere do not understand the statistical properties of risk. I think the notion that the time-series of market moves in large complex markets is not a normal distribution has largely sunk-in.

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

Cyber-threat is the single most serious threat faced by the markets. Many countries cannot complete with the United States in conventional military warfare, but in the cyber wars? They can go toe to toe. This is what we call 'asymmetric' warfare where adversaries have been able to level the playing field.

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

My own twist on that is that the bigger they come, the exponentially harder they fall! Banks are so bent at using expanded balance sheets, using derivatives, pretending that risk is in the net when it's really in the gross, pretending that risk is a linear function of scale when it's an exponential function of scale.

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

We were able to trash the currency, inject hyperinflation and cause interest rates to skyrocket… all at the same time… through the use of a currency weapon. This is a real world, real time example of a currency weapon being used…. Not to gain trade advantage, but to destabilise a regime.

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

The greatest threat to our markets comes not from our adversaries but from ourselves. I think Ben Bernanke's policies are a greater threat to US national security than anything being cooked up in Moscow.

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

we make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same…

Author of "The Teachings of Don Juan" & Controversial Anthropologist

People underestimate their personal probability of encountering negative …it is not so much that individuals believe that negative events will not happen, but rather that these events are relatively unlikely to happen to them.

Former Premier of New Brunswick & Canadian diplomat and businessman

...the most serious financial crisis we've seen at least since the 1930s, if not ever.

Governor of the Bank of England (2003-2013)

...a more dangerous situation now than in 2008

Billionaire investor and philanthropist who funds progressive causes globally

The key for the development of the poor is to include them in the democratic process as well as in the market economy. Therefore, inclusion is the key for getting rid of poverty. Political inclusion… social inclusion… environmental inclusion… education and knowledge inclusion… network inclusion… all these types of inclusion which are taken for granted by people who are inside the growth process.

French Economist, Advisor to Mitterrand & Founder of EBRD

Despite these needs, the reality is that more than half of the estimated 2.7 billion working age adults globally are excluded from formal financial services. Poor families, as far as access to financial services is concerned, are doubly penalised. They need financial access more than we do, but they only have access to inferior informal services.

Poor families in the informal economy are both producers and consumers. In both roles, they need access to financial services at least as much as wealthier producers and consumers. They may even need it more because they have far less regular income and expense streams and less of an economic cushion to begin with.

When you consider that wealth transfer internally in western countries is around 15-25% of GDP… and that is not enough to solve the problem of poverty in the west… then you compare that to a transfer of less than 0.5% between North and South… that is just nothing compared to the needs.

French Economist, Advisor to Mitterrand & Founder of EBRD

Inequality is strong because wealth goes to wealth. The economic and political organisations of the world are such that the negotiation power of the poor is minimal if not zero. There are no trade-unions, no capacity to negotiate… even in the US, Europe and elsewhere… the level of concentration of wealth is bigger than ever.

French Economist, Advisor to Mitterrand & Founder of EBRD

The only serious mechanisms which have made progress in this sense are growth, microfinance and democracy. Economic growth will naturally have some spill-over to the poor, democracy helps transparency together with political consciousness and microfinance helps the very poor to develop their own business and allows them to control their own lives without expecting the help of anyone.

French Economist, Advisor to Mitterrand & Founder of EBRD