Quotes About Economics

It's true that if you advise politicians on economic policy in the U.S. today, you spend your time in a cross between inquiry and combat. You are always on the periphery of harsh partisan warfare that has nothing to do with substance.

At the simplest level, economics can better show us the consequences of our actions. Less simple are cases in which we don't have the knowledge to predict the full consequences. Global warming and climate change are examples.

There are so many problems in the E.U. that several countries are warming up to the idea that after the single currency, a deeper integration could also be created.

Our object in these remarks has been not only to account for the slow progress which has as yet been made by Political Economy, and to suggest means by which its advancement may be accelerated, but also to warn the reader of the nature of the following Treatise.

It's not that we can predict bubbles - if we could, we would be rich. But we can certainly have a bubble warning system.

Measuring the oil industry in dollars gives you a very warped view. Pick a sound currency such as Swiss francs or gold grams and look at the oil business through that lens.

Bush already gave obscene tax breaks to people like me and Warren Buffet, and we are saying it's not fair.

Price is what you pay, but value, as Warren Buffett has observed, is what you get.

Warren Buffett pays taxes on a smaller percentage of his billions in income than his cleaning lady.

People like, George Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sax, Dean Baker, Robert Poland, Larry Summers have said they all support a transaction tax.

The government may change faces from time to time, but it's not like we fight wars for democracy - we fight wars for capitalism and for oil.

It's either 'Saw' made for $4 million or 'Star Wars,' 'Star Trek,' 'Guardians of the Galaxy' et cetera being made for $150 million. So the $30 and $40 million films don't get made unless they're maybe 'Ride Along.' But I don't really know why. I don't get paid to know why.

During the twentieth century, men fought on behalf of nationalism. Yet the wars they fought were also engendered by dislocations in world markets and by social revolution stimulated by the coming of the industrial age.

Wars have economies. And I don't mean financial economies, although that's often part of it. Why do people continue fighting these wars? There are financial incentives.

The incorrect supposition that we live in a world of scarce resources has done more than preclude most individuals from achieving economic success. Over the centuries, this zero-sum-game view of the world has been responsible for wars, revolutions, political strategies, and human suffering of unfathomable proportions.

When the International Trade Centre, the agency I head, works with German electronics giant Bosch to help Kenyan food processing companies boost their productivity and export competitiveness, we may well be creating future customers for Bosch washing machines.

The reason gas prices are so high is because the oil is in Texas and Oklahoma and all the dipsticks are in Washington.

The American tradition of Washington and Hamilton and Madison and Lincoln and TR and Pat Buchanan is of economic nationalism - making America an independent, self-sufficient, sovereign forever country that's able to stand on its own feet.

The first iron rule of American politics is Follow the Money. This explains, oh, about 80 percent of what goes on in Washington.

it is not because of the benevolence of the baker that we eat fresh bread every morning but because of his desire to make money.

Finance is not just about lending, it is about recovering loans also.

I thought there might be some grand design I did not understand, but the government's policy clearly was not working, because India was still poor. I was determined to learn more, so I became interested in economics. This book is another unintended consequence of the government's policies.

We have long understood that it is not income that matters but consumption. Stripped to its essentials, the argument is that if somehow the consumption of middle-class householders keeps up, if they can afford a new car every few years and the occasional exotic holiday, perhaps they will pay less attention to their stagnant monthly paychecks.

Indeed, as we will see in the book, healthy communities are essential for sustaining vibrant market democracies. This is perhaps why authoritarian movements like fascism and communism try to replace community consciousness with nationalist or proletarian consciousness.