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Daniel L. Vasella

CEO
Novartis (NVS), Basel, Switzerland

"The U.S. trade deficit as a percentage of GDP is very high and is being financed by debt so there is a strange analogy between what the government and consumers do.

A large number of interdependent financial instruments that were developed were not well understood by investors or even by the rating agencies. So there was a financial system at the surface and underneath there was a shadow financial system that was not really regulated because it was not transparent."

Additional excerpts from Daniel Vasella

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