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Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

When they are employed wisely, derivatives make the world simpler because they give their buyers an ability to manage and transfer risk.

Derivatives in and of themselves are not evil. There's nothing evil about how they're traded, how they're accounted for, and how they're financed, like any other financial instrument, if done properly.

Do we have to regulate derivatives? Yes, we do. 'Cause when I did this in my investments, frankly, no one knew who could pay who. But derivatives have an important place in our economy.

The whole market mechanism and its evolution is something that, I'm kind of of the Buffett School. You know, if I see a derivative, I run the other way.

Every regulatory speech on derivatives takes a bow to their hedging 'benefits.' Less publicly, regulators pay their respects to derivative profits, a blessed relief from the banks' troubled loans to less-developed countries, highly leveraged companies, and real estate swingers.

The discussion of derivatives in the political world has become a zero sum game.

Derivatives trading should be standardized and as much as possible moved to clearinghouses.

I didn't become interested in derivatives until 1982, 1983.