Politics

The single greatest deficit that Europe faces today is not a budget, current-account or trade deficit… but a growth one. With stronger growth, a lot of these problems would be quite a bit easier to handle, if not to resolve.

As you move forward... there is the potential that the government can make a wrong-move but more importantly, now that the infrastructure has been built.. you have to question how long that growth model can last... Once you've built your motorways and railways, you're not going to build anymore!

Founder of Gavekal Research & Investment Strategist

The net result would certainly be worth the effort as now, more than ever, stakeholders in a fragile global economy from central banks to individual consumers need to know that what they are seeing is, in fact, the truth... the whole truth... and nothing but the truth.

We weren't involved in politics and had nothing to do with the government. But they took everything we had, our seven companies and the company plane. And it's a miracle they didn't kill us.

Around the world, government economists have a paradoxical role. On one hand they have a clear remit to accurately quantify their nation's economy and publish those figures in good faith... but conversely they can be prone (through pressure) to 'engineer' the figures in order to meet political objectives.

We estimate with the World Bank that US$20-40 billion each year is lost in developing countries through corruption. If you add to that $5 billion each year in stolen assets, it clearly shows that corruption is a serious obstacle to the achievement of the millennium development goals.

Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Corruption destroys societies, hinders development and undermines security. Note what happened in the Middle East and North Africa… corruption was one of the triggers of unrest in these countries. It appears that people are fed-up of corruption, they want change, and they want it now.

Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

For every example I could give you of regulations causing problems, I could give you two of regulations creating opportunities. I think this notion that regulation is causing problems is a real red herring.

Many governments, faced with a popular revolt, have chosen to martyr wealth without realising that it is the source of entrepreneurship, innovation and philanthropy in their economies.

What on earth they [referring to government] will do next…

What's remarkable about Israel's economy is that in the last few years we have situations which, in any other country, would have been totally disruptive. The incredible thing is that none of these threats have a measurable impact on our economy!

Mathematician & Topologist, Solved the 4-Dimensional Poincaré Conjecture

I think transparency in this sense is a red-herring. A multi-strategy hedge fund could give an investor or the SEC it's daily trade blotter and accomplish 'transparency,' and the recipient would have no idea what to make of the trades.

I personally think that it's only the ignorant and populism pandering politicians who treat the hedge fund industry as a scapegoat for the financial crisis. It was the extremely heavily regulated investment banks who, risking their shareholders' money, levered their firms up to 40:1!

China realises that he who owns the brand, owns the wealth… For nations, brands give economic control, security and choice and are therefore extremely important.

Leading brand strategist and founding partner of Interbrand

If you look at the decade which ended in 2009, our estimate is around US$8 trillion. As previously mentioned, we believe this is a very conservative estimate because there are major parts of illicit flows that are not included in that figure.

I grew up in Canada and have a lot of friends in Argentina. In the early part of the 20th Century, Argentina was wealthier and had a higher per-capita income than Canada. The country had severe governance issues which impacted economic and social development.

Nobel Prize-winning economist; Stanford provost and NYU president