Quotes About Economics

But beginners to the World Economics Forum have to understand there is no single Davos experience, and there is no single Davos community either. There are numerous tribes who interact only at a minimal level.

We all know that Americans love their statistics - in sport, obviously. And in finance too.

If Uber is lower-priced, then more people will want it. And if more people want it and can afford it, then you have more cars on the road. And if you have more cars on the road, then your pickup times are lower, your reliability is better. The lower-cost product ends up being more luxurious than the high-end one.

Demanding that the rich get a tax cut as a condition for tax relief for others is simply elitist.

The 'free market' is a creed that stirs up near religious devotion among its believers. It is in fact a con, a myth, a great deception.

When my job was attempting to predict future economic developments for the Shell oil company, I was frequently reminded of an Arabic saying: 'Those who claim to foresee the future are lying, even if by chance they are later proved right.'

With free market and free man, if you remove one of them, it is not called capitalism in my dictionary.

Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.

Renewable energy is not more expensive than fossil fuel when you factor in life-cycle costs.

Rent control created deadweight loss.

You see politicians talking about negative gearing or tax on your second home - most people I knew growing up couldn't afford the rent, let alone buying a house, or a second house.

I would like to try to cap rent prices.

Whenever rent controls or increased tenants' rights are raised, naysayers wail that doing so will cause landlords to flee the rental market. Firstly, that is a canard: if a landlord charges £1000 for a room, and you tell him from now on he can only charge £900, he won't decide to instead earn nothing.

Start with the idea that you can't repeal the laws of economics. Even if they are inconvenient.

A second reason why science cannot replace judgement is the behavior of financial markets.

True enough, the Fed needs radical reforms. In particular, it needs to replace its failed forecasting models and be rid of the academics who overwhelm the Fed system.

Teams don't care how long you have been there or if you are their all-time reception leader. They don't care about that. All they care about is if they can replace you for cheaper.

Every day it seems more likely that we are destined - or should one say doomed? - to replay the disastrous economic history of the 1930s.

The financial report makes it very clear that if we got into honest budgeting today, that in fact we would find ourselves with a much larger deficit than we have today.

A Congressional Budget Office report released as recent as June 2004 says the system will be able to pay full benefits until 2052, and 80 percent after that.

Most rich countries have reported increases in happiness as they become richer.

The modern economics of the newsroom don't support big investigative reporting staffs.

You don't need Math to do business reporting. Business is all about choices that consumers make.

What I've learned in 40 years of consumer reporting is that the market is imperfect, and some people get ripped off.