Wilbur Ross

“The United States is the least protectionist country in the world but has the largest trade deficit, while other countries are highly protectionist and have huge trade surpluses. This cannot continue.”

“Washington, D.C., is the new Wall Street. No significant financial transaction of any consequence occurs without it.”

“To me, the most terrifying form of warfare would be if there was some simultaneous cyber attack on our grid, on the banking system, and on our transportation system. That would be quite a devastating thing, and yet in theory, absent some real protective measures, that could happen.”

“If you want to do something to destroy consumer spending, just eat away at the middle class because the other problem we have is the structural problem of middle class America.”

“If trade deficits are good, why is China so pleased that they run a huge trade surplus? It's perfectly obvious that if China hadn't been such a huge net-exporter, it never would have grown at the rate that it did.”

“China is the most protectionist country of the very large countries. They talk more about free trade than they actually practice.”

“If you add up all the promises any politician makes, the math doesn't work. Hillary Clinton's math doesn't work; Donald's math probably doesn't work. I think you have to listen to their campaign pitches more as symbolic, more as metaphors.”

“I think what we have to do is figure out how to make sure we get the benefits of improved technology and yet cope with the dislocation that it will inevitably produce in certain industries.”

“We think, over the long term, the real key to value of a bank is does it have true deposits from true long-term customers? People who actually know the bank, live in the neighborhood, work there, maybe have a mortgage there, credit card... That, to us, is the key to a bank.”

“The one term I don't like to be called is a 'vulture.' Because to me, a vulture is a kind of asset-stripper that eats dead flesh off the bones of a dead creature. Our bird should be the phoenix, the bird that reinvents itself, recreates itself from its ashes. And that's much closer to what it is that we really do.”

“Part of the reason why I'm supporting Trump is that I think we need a more radical, new approach to government - at least in the U.S. - from what we've had before.”

“We are the world's biggest importer. We need to treat the other countries as good suppliers.”

“Believe it or not, Mexico has better treaties with the rest of the world than the Unites States does.”

“I think partly the decline in the peso was due to worry about renegotiation of NAFTA, but I think we also need to think about some other mechanisms for making the peso/dollar exchange rate a bit more stable.”

“The E.U., China, and Japan all talk free trade, and they all practice protectionism.”

“Everybody talks about tariffs as the first thing. Tariffs are the last thing. Tariffs are part of the negotiation. The real trick is going to be increase American exports. Get rid of some of the tariff and non-tariff barriers to American exports.”

“I'm a very big proponent of cloud. We've used it a lot in private sector, and as far as we can tell, it is not only more efficient, it's probably also more secure for lots of very complicated technical reasons. I think it's a very important thing for government to do, and also to have systems that talk to each other.”

“You cannot just keep borrowing more and more and keep spending more and more without eventually having a day of reckoning.”

“The way we'll get more jobs is by creating new industries, new companies, businesses that are higher tech and therefore can compete.”

“I believe if we and the Mexicans make a very sensible trade agreement, the Mexican peso will recover quite a lot.”