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Trust is central to an economy that works.

Crony capitalism is much easier than competing in an open market. But it erodes our overall standard of living and stifles entrepreneurs by rewarding the politically favored rather than those who provide what consumers want.

Capitalism is not so much an aberration as a step on an evolutionary path, and one that contains within it some of the answers to its own contradictions.

Capitalism, after all, is no fun when real failure becomes a possibility.

In order to work well, markets need a basic level of trust.

Capitalism is about adventurers who get harmed by their mistakes, not people who harm others with their mistakes.

On Wall Street, fraudulent schemes tend to thrive during economic booms, and to blow up when times turn tough.

The biggest lie of all is that capitalism is democracy. We have no way of understanding democracy outside of the market, just as we have no understanding of how to understand freedom outside of market values.

The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it always works this way.

For the most part fraud in the end secures for its companions repentance and shame.