Quotes About Economics

Scholars of economic history have worked up numbers suggesting that Britain spent more on maintaining its empire than it gained from exploiting it.

I always tend to assume there's an infinite amount of money out there." "There might as well be," Arsibalt said, "but most of it gets spent on pornography, sugar water, and bombs. There is only so much that can be scraped together for particle accelerators.

hadn't known that," I said. "I always tend to assume there's an infinite amount of money out there." "There might as well be," Arsibalt said, "but most of it gets spent on pornography, sugar water, and bombs. There is only so much that can be scraped together for particle accelerators.

To the Equity Lords, the idea had been worth billions; to Hackworth, another week's paycheck. That was the difference between the classes, right there.

Gold is the corpse of value

How does a poor country defeat rich ones?" "Indeed, the answer is not by acquiring wealth in the sense that France has it." "Meaning vineyards, farms, peasants, cows?" "But rather to play a sort of trick and redefine wealth to mean something novel." "Currency!" "Indeed.

economic—when economic security and basic materialistic needs are guaranteed to all—then incentive will not disappear, but be of a different sort, increasing in strength and determination, producing true greatness, not the kind of transparent, transient "greatness" which present incentives produce.

exploration is hardly ever motivated by the desire to explore. Part the curtains of curiosity, and you'll find individuals hungry for political, cultural, or economic dominion funding the expedition.

The liabilities of the bank thus became its deposits (on which it paid interest) plus its reserve (on which it could collect no interest); its assets became its loans (on which it could collect interest).

Banknotes (which originated in seventh-century China) are pieces of paper which have next to no intrinsic worth. They are simply promises to pay (hence their original Western designation as 'promissory notes')

Without the spread of British rule around the world, it is hard to believe that the structures of liberal capitalism would have been so successfully established in so many different economies around the world.

By discouraging saving and encouraging consumption, accelerating inflation had stimulated output and employment

En teoría el impuesto era pagado por los productores de los artículos afectados, pero en la práctica recaía sobre los consumidores, pues los productores se limitaban a agregar el impuesto a sus precios. Incluso el vaso de cerveza o whisky que consumía o cada pipa que fumaba estaban sujetos a impuestos. Como lo dijo Burns, su negocio era «oprimir al publicano y al pecador con las ruedas despiadadas de los impuestos interiores».

When bond prices fall, interest rates soar, with painful consequences for all borrowers.

man who had exchanged his $1,000 of savings for gold in 1970, while the gold window was still ajar, would have received just over 26.6 ounces of the precious metal. At the time of writing, with gold trading at close to $1,000 an ounce, he could have sold his gold for $26,596.

solo unas lecciones de vuelo y unos cutters. En el momento en que escribo, ochenta lecciones de una hora de vuelo incluidos el coste del alquiler de la nave y la instrucción cuestan menos de nueve mil dólares. Un cutter con seis hojas cuesta 2,11 dólares. Por un desembolso insignificante, un puñado de hombres pudieron matar a 3.173 personas

figures must be adjusted downwards to take account of the cost of living, which has risen by a factor of nearly seven in my lifetime.

It nevertheless remains true that, in most countries for which long-run data are available, stocks have out-performed bonds – by a factor of roughly five over the twentieth century.

Se ha demostrado de modo convincente que una de las principales razones para la creciente desigualdad internacional en los años setenta y ochenta fue en realidad el proteccionismo en los países menos desarrollados. Una

money: a unit of account, a store of value - portable power.

Desde que en 1579 se hubieron sacudido del dominio español, los holandeses habían estado a la vanguardia del capitalismo europeo. Habían creado un sistema de deuda pública que permitía al gobierno tomar empréstitos de sus ciudadanos a un tipo de interés bajo. Habían fundado una institución parecida a un banco central moderno. Su moneda era sólida. Su sistema impositivo basado en los impuestos internos era simple y eficaz.

En la práctica el dinero invertido en una colonia de iure como la India (o en una colonia en todo sentido, excepto el nombre como Egipto) era mucho más seguro que invertir en una colonia de facto como Argentina.

The Crusades, like the conquests that followed, were as much about overcoming Europe's monetary shortage as about converting heathens to Christianity.14

They dug up so much silver to pay for their wars of conquest that the metal itself dramatically declined in value - that is to say, in its purchasing power with respect to other goods.