Quotes by Robert J. Shiller - Page 2

In a bubble, eventually people start saying, 'Wait a minute... these prices are way too high! What is anyone buying anymore? What could they possibly be thinking?' And then there's a correction and a bursting.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Bursting
Buying
Bubble
Correction
Minute
Prices
Copy Quote
Fifty years ago or a hundred years ago, generally, most people would buy a house the way you buy a car. When you buy a car, do you think, 'I better buy this year rather than next year because car prices might go up?'
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Next Year
Hundred Years
Prices
Copy Quote
Speculative markets have always been vulnerable to illusion. But seeing the folly in markets provides no clear advantage in forecasting outcomes, because changes in the force of the illusion are difficult to predict.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Advantage
Clear
Difficult
Folly
Force
Outcomes
Seeing
Vulnerable
Predict
Markets
Provides
Speculative
Copy Quote
Yes, horoscopes still persist in popular newspapers, but they are there only for the severely scientifically challenged, or for entertainment; the idea that the stars determine our fate has lost all intellectual currency.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Currency
Determine
Entertainment
Fate
Lost
Newspapers
Persist
Stars
Challenged
Popular
Scientifically
Yes
Copy Quote
Physicists have a bias to aspire to be "seers" like Einstein rather than "craftspeople" who do simple and practical research. I have seen that in economics departments. The same must be true to some extent in other departments.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Economics
Research
Simple
Copy Quote
The desperately poor may accept handouts, because they feel they have to. For those who consider themselves at least middle class, however, anything that smacks of a handout is not desired. Instead, they want their economic power back.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Class
Economic
Economic Power
Middle
Middle Class
Poor
Smack
Accept
Consider
Desired
Handout
However
Instead
Least
Themselves
Copy Quote
If I was counselling an individual, and my purpose was to help that individual, the most important thing would be that you should save more. Because don't expect that your retirement will follow those trajectories that some advisers are telling you.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Adviser
Retirement
Most Important Thing
Copy Quote
Hesitation is often like procrastination. One may have vague doubts and feel a need to mull things over; meanwhile, other issues intrude on thought, and no decision is taken. Ask people why they procrastinate, and you probably won't get a crisp answer.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Decision
Hesitation
Issues
Taken
Vague
Ask
Why
Crisp
Often
Doubts
Intrude
Meanwhile
Procrastinate
Copy Quote
Fear causes individuals to restrain their spending and firms to withhold investments; as a result, the economy weakens, confirming their fear and leading them to restrain spending further. The downturn deepens, and a vicious circle of despair takes hold.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Causes
Despair
Downturn
Vicious
Circle
Confirming
Further
Restrain
Weakens
Withhold
Copy Quote
The good news is that, at least in economics, I've seen movement away from its overemphasis on mathematical models of purely rational behavior to a more eclectic and commonsense approach: research that is, among other things, more respectful of insights from psychology.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
News
Psychology
Research
Copy Quote
If we wait until income inequality is much more severe, we will have a whole class of new superrich who will probably feel entitled to their wealth and will have the means to defend their interest. That's already gone far enough. We shouldn't let it become more extreme.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Class
Entitled
Income
Income Inequality
Inequality
Interest
Severe
Wealth
Extreme
Defend
Wait
Copy Quote
Housing traditionally is not viewed as a great investment. It takes maintenance; it depreciates. It goes out of style. All of those are problems. And there's technical progress in housing. So, new ones are better. So, why was it considered an investment? That was a fad.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Housing
Investment
Maintenance
Fad
New Ones
Viewed
Copy Quote
Economists who adhere to rational-expectations models of the world will never admit it, but a lot of what happens in markets is driven by pure stupidity - or, rather, inattention, misinformation about fundamentals, and an exaggerated focus on currently circulating stories.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Expectations
Focus
Stupidity
Copy Quote
As a child, I was fascinated by any branch of physical or biological science. Even today, I find great excitement in discovering the complexity and variability of the world we live in, getting a glimpse into the deeper reality that we mostly ignore in our everyday human activities.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Complexity
Deeper
Discovering
Everyday
Excitement
Fascinated
Glimpse
Variability
Activities
Biological
Branch
Ignore
Copy Quote
What would be better, that people build big houses thinking that they'll make capital gains or that they send their children to medical school and they do research on curing diseases? When you put it that way, it seems obvious. There has developed a sense of personal worth that's tied to one's house.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Capital Gains
Gains
Medical School
Obvious
Tied
Capital
Curing
Developed
Diseases
Houses
Send
Copy Quote
A moderate tax on robots, even a temporary tax that merely slows the adoption of disruptive technology, seems a natural component of a policy to address rising inequality. Revenue could be targeted toward wage insurance, to help people replaced by new technology make the transition to a different career.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Adoption
Disruptive
Inequality
New Technology
Policy
Replaced
Revenue
Rising
Robots
Temporary
Transition
Tax
Technology People New
Address
Component
Help People
Insurance
Merely
Moderate
Targeted
Toward
Wage
Copy Quote
Stock prices are likely to be among the prices that are relatively vulnerable to purely social movements because there is no accepted theory by which to understand the worth of stocks....investors have no model or at best a very incomplete model of behavior of prices, dividend, or earnings, of speculative assets.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Earning
Investing
Movement
Copy Quote
All taxes, except a 'lump-sum tax,' introduce distortions in the economy. But no government can impose a lump-sum tax - the same amount for everyone regardless of their income or expenditures - because it would fall heaviest on those with less income, and it would grind the poor, who might be unable to pay it at all.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Amount
Economy
Expenditures
Grind
Income
Tax
Except
Heaviest
Impose
Introduce
Regardless
Unable
Copy Quote
Trump's victory clearly appears to stem from a sense of economic powerlessness, or a fear of losing power, among his supporters. To them, his simple slogan, 'Make America great again,' sounds like 'Make You great again': economic power will be given to the multitudes without taking anything away from the already successful.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Economic Power
Multitudes
Powerlessness
Stem
Appears
Slogan
Supporters
Copy Quote
Since the global financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009, criticism of the economics profession has intensified. The failure of all but a few professional economists to forecast the episode - the aftereffects of which still linger - has led many to question whether the economics profession contributes anything significant to society.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Failure
Crisis
Criticism
Economics
Financial
Financial Crisis
Profession
Significant
Since
Economists
Episode
Forecast
Global
Intensified
Led
Linger
Question
Recession
Copy Quote
I think that a lot of people in all walks of life have the impression, of course, that, 'I specialize in something. I can't - I don't have the time to read other things. I'll just go to pure entertainment when I'm relaxing, and then I'll come back to my pure specialty.' That produces - that attitude produces idiot savants, unfortunately.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Attitude
Impression
Pure
Walks
Life Time People
Attitude Life Time
Unfortunately
Produces
Relaxing
Specialize
Copy Quote
I want to know diverse facts about such things as galaxies or molecules or proteins or insect species. I have an impulse to want to know the little details, which are usually of no significance to non-specialists. I own a dissection microscope, and if there is an insect in the house, I sometimes catch it and look at it under the microscope.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Diverse
Impulse
Molecules
Significance
Species
Catch
Galaxies
Insect
Microscope
Proteins
Such Things
Copy Quote
Those on the downside of rising economic inequality generally do not want government policies that look like handouts. They typically do not want the government to make the tax system more progressive, to impose punishing taxes on the rich, in order to give the money to them. Redistribution feels demeaning. It feels like being labeled a failure.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Demeaning
Inequality
Progressive
Rising
Tax System
Downside
Government Policies
Impose
Labeled
Policies
Punishing
Redistribution
Copy Quote
My clinical psychologist wife of 40 years has always had a close intellectual influence on me. When I was beginning to talk openly in the economics profession about irrationality in decision-making, I received a lot of criticism. Ginny would support my views and remind me that a whole other profession - psychology - studies people's irrational sides.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
People
Views
Years
Copy Quote
As I write in 2012 we certainly do not believe that it is over yet, and the worst may be yet to come. Efforts by governments to solve the underlying problems responsible for the crisis have still not gotten very far, and the 'stress tests' that governments have used to encourage optimism about our financial institutions were of questionable thoroughness.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Believe
Stress
Writing
Copy Quote
Can a controlled experiment explain why people like Kewpie dolls in one year, Beanie Babies in another, and American Girl dolls this year? Yet social scientists are asked to answer analogous questions. We economists and perhaps psychologists shouldn't overreact to the derision. That is, we shouldn't try to overlay a false sense of precision on our admittedly squooshy work.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Girl
Baby
Years
Copy Quote
A major boom in real stock prices in the US after Black Tuesday brought them halfway back to 1929 levels by 1930. This was followed by a second crash, another boom from 1932 to 1937, and a third crash. Speculative bubbles do not end like a short story, novel, or play. There is no final denouement that brings all the strands of a narrative into an impressive final conclusion. In the real world, we never know when the story is over.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Play
Real
Tuesday
Copy Quote
My father, Benjamin Shiller, told me not to believe in authorities or celebrities - that society tends to imagine them as superhuman. It's good advice. People are snowed by celebrities all the time. In academia people have this idea of achieving stardom - publishing in the best journals, being at the best university, writing on the hot topic everyone else is writing about. But that's what my father told me not to do. He taught me that you have to pursue things that sound right to you.
Robert J. Shiller / Economist
Believe
Father
Writing
Copy Quote

Related Economist Authors

Thomas Sowell
Economist
Monday, Jun 30, 1930
William Stanley Jevons
Economist
Tuesday, Sep 01, 1835
Sunday, Aug 13, 1882
William Petty
Economist
Friday, May 26, 1623
Tuesday, Dec 16, 1687
William Forsyth Sharpe
Economist
Saturday, Jun 16, 1934
William Easterly
Economist
Saturday, Sep 07, 1957
William Beveridge
Economist
Wednesday, Mar 05, 1879
Saturday, Mar 16, 1963
William A. Niskanen
Economist
Monday, Mar 13, 1933
Wednesday, Oct 26, 2011
Willem Buiter
Economist
Monday, Sep 26, 1949
Will Hutton
Economist
Sunday, May 21, 1950
Werner Sombart
Economist
Monday, Jan 19, 1863
Sunday, May 18, 1941
Wassily Leontief
Economist
Sunday, Aug 05, 1906
Friday, Feb 05, 1999
Wang Anshi
Economist
Saturday, Dec 08, 1021
Friday, May 21, 1086
Walter Heller
Economist
Friday, Aug 27, 1915
Monday, Jun 15, 1987
Walter E. Williams
Economist
Tuesday, Jun 30, 1936
Walter Block
Economist
Thursday, Aug 21, 1941

View All Economist Quotes

Top Authors

Khalil Gibran
Poet
Saturday, Jan 06, 1883
Friday, Apr 10, 1931
John Keats
Poet
Saturday, Oct 31, 1795
Friday, Feb 23, 1821
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil Rights Activist
Tuesday, Jan 15, 1929
Thursday, Apr 04, 1968
Walt Disney
Animator
Thursday, Dec 05, 1901
Thursday, Dec 15, 1966
Charles Spurgeon
Preacher
Thursday, Jun 19, 1834
Sunday, Jan 31, 1892
Mahatma Gandhi
Civil Rights Leader
Saturday, Oct 02, 1869
Friday, Jan 30, 1948
Julius Caesar
Roman Dictator
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Benjamin Franklin
Founding Father Of The United States
Sunday, Jan 17, 1706
Saturday, Apr 17, 1790
John F. Kennedy
35Th U.s. President
Tuesday, May 29, 1917
Friday, Nov 22, 1963
Winston Churchill
Former Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom
Monday, Nov 30, 1874
Sunday, Jan 24, 1965
Albert Camus
Author
Friday, Nov 07, 1913
Monday, Jan 04, 1960
W. Edwards Deming
Statistician
Sunday, Oct 14, 1900
Monday, Dec 20, 1993
Barack Obama
44Th U.s. President
Friday, Aug 04, 1961
Henry David Thoreau
Author
Saturday, Jul 12, 1817
Tuesday, May 06, 1862
Voltaire
Writer
Sunday, Nov 21, 1694
Saturday, May 30, 1778

View All Authors

Robert J. Shiller Quotes - Page 2

Picture Quotes Maker

Related Economist Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

Picture Quotes Maker

Related Economist Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page