Quotes About Economics

Not only do fossil fuel companies receive $775 billion to $1 trillion in annual global subsidies, but they pay nothing for the privilege of treating our shared atmosphere as a free waste dump—a fact that has been described by the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change as "the greatest market failure the world has ever seen." That freebie is the real distortion, that theft of the sky the real subsidy.13

Democracy isn't the work of the market's invisible hand; it is the work of real hands.

The economics of industrialized countries would collapse if women didn't do the work they do for free: According to economist Marilyn Waring, throughout the West it generates between 25 and 40 percent of the gross national product.

In studies of body self-perception, women regularly overestimate their body size; in a study of economic self-perception, they regularly underestimate their business expenses. The point is that the two misperceptions are causally related. By valuing women's skills at artificially low levels and tying their physical value into the workplace, the market protects its pool of cheap female labor.

Why is it that all wars are won by bankers?

Se acabó lo de gratis, Fernandito. Bienvenido al capitalismo. —¿No dicen que eso es malísimo? —Peor. Y te va a encantar. —¿Cuándo empiezo? —Ahora mismo.

The most dramatic example of the public aspect of patriarchal right is that men demand that women's bodies are for sale as commodities in the capitalist market; prostitution is a major capitalist industry.

Economists suggest that we should assess the value of decisions in terms of two considerations: the costs of decisions and the costs of errors.

Question: What will happen after Cuba builds communism? Answer: It will start importing sugar. Question: What's the difference between capitalism and communism? Answer: Under capitalism, man exploits man; under communism, it's the other way around)

There's a popular image of people who don't save for the future as lacking in self-control. But the reason saving is so hard has less to do with self-control and more to do with a scarcity of attention.

The return from cows and sheep in cheese is worth much money every day in the season, without calves and lambs, and without the manure, which all return corn and fruit.

Europe is difficult to coordinate, and our main deficit may not even lie in this area of finance and economics, but in foreign and security policy. We have a leadership problem because we are still 27 different members who have still not decided on how to work with each other based on what we used to call a European constitution.

One of the key problems is that the Germans know what they do because everywhere they go there's a 'made in Germany' label on it - they can feel proud of Volkswagens and Audis and Mercedes.

In terms of merchandise, you can't force anyone to buy something.

Much of what is called investment is actually nothing more than mergers and acquisitions, and of course mergers and acquisitions are generally accompanied by downsizing.

If you want to learn real economics instead of neoliberal junk economics, read Michael Hudson's books.

Americans like buying American vs. buying from Chavez or buying from the Middle East.

Shipping is so cheap that it makes more financial sense for Scottish cod to be sent 10,000 miles to China to be filleted, then sent back to Scottish shops and restaurants, than to pay Scottish filleters.

Millennials are worth less on paper than members of older generations are, and are worth less on paper than members of older generations were at the same point in their lives.

It is extremely difficult to get movies that cost more than $40 million to be made these days.

Let's make Jeb Bush explain his plan to give millionaires another massive tax cut.

We'd rather pay farmers millions of dollars not to grow crops than to feed children.

We all forget that when a TV network says, 'Look, we're broke,' it means that they're not making as much money as they would like to be making. They're still making millions and millions of dollars - they're just not making billions and billions of dollars.

Is there any reason why the American people should be taxed to guarantee the debts of banks, any more than they should be taxed to guarantee the debts of other institutions, including merchants, the industries, and the mills of the country?