"We simply replaced one bubble with a bigger bubble, and we postponed the consequences of the unwinding of the imbalances until right now. And, of course, we're still trying to postpone it."
“First of all the main problem the past number of years is we spent a lot of money we didn’t have to buy foreign products we can’t afford. We have run up an enormous debt to the rest of the world and have nothing to show for it. It’s analogous to an individual loses his job and instead of getting another job he buys everything on his credit card, and he shows his wife his credit card bills and says “Look honey, look how great we are doing”.
"You don’t drive an economy by consuming – the consumer is not the engine, the consumer is the caboose."