Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I have argued that the Soviet story is one of the interaction of speculative excess or utopian aspirations with refractory reality.
Moving to a cooperatively organized enterprise is one of the best ways to really do something about unequal distribution of wealth.
As both a consumer and producer of newspaper articles, I have no beef with pay walls. But before signing up, I read the fine print.
Payroll savings plans are vital because they are essentially the only way that middle-class Americans reliably save for retirement.
I think the concern over rising interest rates is ahead of itself because I think inflationary fears themselves might be premature.
The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.
You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.
The whole idea of equal justice under law is completely incompatible with the idea of judges deciding cases according to "empathy".
All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.
Banks will have to win the confidence of their customers through fair dealing, making good loans, and remaining financially healthy.
No one will lend at a negative interest rate; potential creditors will simply choose to hold cash, which pays zero nominal interest.
The role of Italy and of Austria has diminished as has that of France and Britain; Germany and Japan have suffered catastrophically.
I think my biggest fear is having another global war which might have been a result of sharing the primary commodities in the world.
Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has been wrong.
Socialism is simply a re-assertion of that tribal ethics whose gradual weakening had made an approach to the Great Society possible.
The true remedy for most evils is none other than liberty, unlimited and complete liberty, liberty in every field of human endeavor.
It is imperative to change the way we look at education. We should invest in the foundation of school readiness from birth to age 5.
Africa is like a child that immediately cries for its babysitter when something goes wrong. Africa should stand on its own two feet.
The ideas by which people . . . interpret their existence and in measure guide their behavior, were not forged in a world of wealth.
The human capital of most macroeconomists, heavily invested in demand management, was wiped out by the policy failures of the 1970s.
The great thing about fiscal policy is that it has a direct impact and doesn't require you to bind the hands of future policymakers.
I believe that the only important structural obstacles to world prosperity are the obsolete doctrines that clutter the minds of men.
The behavior of the economy as a whole, at the aggregate, macro-level, is built up from the individual equations at the micro-level.
There are cases when I can make myself better off by restricting my future choices and commit myself to a specific course of action.
Those who relish the study of character may profit by the reading of good works of fiction, the product of well-established authors.
In my long life, I have known some great economists, but I have never counted myself among their number nor walked in their company.
It is amazing how many people think they are doing blacks a favor by exempting them from standards that others are expected to meet.
One of the most pervasive political visions of our time is the vision of liberals as compassionate and conservatives as less caring.
Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.
The economic disasters of socialism and communism come from assuming a blanket superiority of those who want to run a whole economy.
The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.
Our own relentless search for novelty and social status locks us into an iron cage of consumerism. Affluence has itself betrayed us.
Usually, so far as improvement in the people's economic conditions is concerned, humanitarians simply play the role of the busybody.
Give me the fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.
No matter how skillful the trading scheme, over the long haul, abnormal returns are sustained only through abnormal exposure to risk.
I don't believe, the president doesn't believe, that the high income tax cuts work, period. I don't think the evidence supports that.
the distinction between rich nations and poor nations is one of the great dominant political and international themes of our century.
The two questions that anyone ever asks me are: 'Are house prices going to go down?' and 'Is it a good time to fix my mortgage rate?'
The truth seems . . . to be that in the ultimate and essential problem the economic factor is relatively superficial and unimportant.
I'm just opposed to a pure inflation-only mandate in which the only thing a central bank cares about is inflation and not employment.
The idea that the UN system could provide real leadership on the great development challenges will strain credulity in some quarters.
It's the American leadership that has not played the role it should be playing and that leaders in other countries have been playing.
Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
It is my guiding confession that I believe the greatest error in economics is in seeing the economy as a stable, immutable structure.
It takes resolution to go forth from the ease and beautiful simplicity of a well-formed hypothesis and struggle with amorphous facts.
If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.
To suggest social action for the public good to the city London is like discussing The Origin of Species to a Bishop sixty years ago.
Politicians are like bad horsemen who are so preoccupied with staying in the saddle that they can't bother about where they're going.
The president [Barack Obama] did introduce a jobs bill that could not clear Congress. The Republicans simply would not work with him.
Enforcing trade deals is spot on. Acting in the interest of American workers is correct. But large-scale tariffs are a terrible idea.