Quotes About Economics

However great an economic theory ma be, it is specific to its time and space. To apply it fruitfully, we require a good knowledge of the technological and institutional forces that characterize the particular markets, industries and countries that we are trying to analyze with the help of the theory.

A História é útil para destacar os limites da teoria económica.

The Korean economic miracle was the result of a clever and pragmatic mixture of market incentives and state direction. The Korean government did not vanquish the market as the communist states did. However, it did not have blind faith in the free market either. While it took markets seriously, the Korean strategy recognized that they often need to be corrected through policy intervention.

Now, if it was only Korea that became rich through such 'heretical' policies, the free-market gurus might be able to dismiss it as merely the exception that proves the rule. However, Korea is no exception. As I shall show later, practically all of today's developed countries, including Britain and the US, the supposed homes of the free market and free trade, have become rich on the basis of policy recipes that go against the orthodoxy of neo-liberal economics.

El mercado libre no existe. Todos los mercados tienen reglas y límites que acotan la libertad de elección. Si un mercado parece libre, solo es porque aceptamos tan incondicionalmente sus restricciones de base que ya no las vemos. No se puede definir con objetividad lo «libre» que es un mercado.

algunos mercados parecen libres, solo es porque aceptamos tanto las regulaciones en las que se apoya que se vuelven invisibles.

Recognizing that the boundaries of the market are ambiguous and cannot be determined in an objective way lets us realize that economics is not a science like physics or chemistry, but a political exercise... If the boundaries of what you are studying cannot be scientifically determined, what you are doing is not a science.

There is no such thing as free market. All markets are created and have rules and regulations.

Therefore, Simon argues, when they make their choices, human beings satisfice, that is, we look for 'good enough' solutions rather than the best ones, as in the Neoclassical theory.25

Economics is (almost) about Life, the Universe and Everything.

Recognizing that the boundaries of the market are ambiguous and cannot be determined in an objective way lets us realize that economics is not a science like physics or chemistry, but a political exercise. Free-market economists may want you to believe that the correct boundaries of the market can be scientifically determined, but this is incorrect. If the boundaries of what you are studying cannot be scientifically determined, what you are doing is not a science.

G. HODGSON How Economics Forgot History: The Problem of Historical Specificity in Social Science

E. REINERT How Rich Countries Became Rich, and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor

principles all directly go against the received economic wisdom of the last three decades. This will have made some readers uncomfortable. But unless we now abandon the principles that have failed us and that are continuing to hold us back, we will meet similar disasters down the road. And we will have done nothing to alleviate the conditions of billions suffering poverty and insecurity, especially, but not exclusively, in the developing world. It is time to get uncomfortable.

A. RONCAGLIA The Wealth of Ideas: A History of Economic Thought

Unlike what neo-liberals say, market and democracy clash at a fundamental level. Democracy runs on the principle of 'one man (one person), one vote'. The market runs on the principle 'one dollar, one vote'.

In the long run, free trade is a policy that is likely to condemn developing countries to specialize in sectors that offer low productivity growth and thus low growth in living standards.

It used to be the players were here (lowering his arm) and owners were here (raising his arm). Now, it's the other way. There's so much money.

Sound money and free banking are not impossible; they are merely illegal. Freedom of money and freedom of banking... are the principles that must guide our steps.

Looking to advance in journalism, one future editor displayed skilled as varied as economic analysis and humorous commentary.

Libertarians know that a free country has nothing to fear from anyone coming in or going out - while a welfare state is scared to death of poor people coming in and rich people getting out.

As Frederic Bastiat put it, "The State is the great fictitious entity by which everyone expects to live at the expense of everyone else."[8]

The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.

The Marshall Plan will go down in history as one of America's greatest contributions to the peace of the world.