Quotes About Economics

In my book, 'The Big Three in Economics,' I found that the press has frequently and prematurely written the obituary of Adam Smith and his free-market philosophy, only to see a new and more vibrant global marketplace reemerge after being savagely attacked by Keynesians, Marxists, and assorted socialists.

The way I think of it, economics and ecology occupy two intellectual silos, isolated from each other. Even when they do take each other into consideration, it's not uncommon for ecologists to spout absolute nonsense about economics, and vice versa.

I'm the result of upbringing, class, race, gender, social prejudices, and economics. So I'm a victim again. A result.

We need a memorial day to commemorate the victims of neoliberal globalization.

Economists have understood since the Victorian era that the main benefits of trade come from comparative advantage: the idea that people can specialize in what they're good at and then benefit from exchange. The principle is no more mysterious than specialization in the labor market.

We think we have to work because the advertising industry has elevated wants into needs. The newspapers and the television batter us incessantly with the latest 'must-haves', whether that's shoes, videogames or patio heaters. As a result, mums think they 'have' to work at Tesco in order to buy expensive trainers.

For thirty-five years, David Halberstam, an unsilent member of the Silent Generation, has contemplated America and its place in the world, casting his eye on big subjects - Vietnam, global economics, race, mass media, and the 1950s.

The reality is if something were to happen that cost China jobs - like, if they upwardly revalued the currency a lot - those jobs aren't going to come back to the U.S. They would go to Vietnam; they would go to Thailand. They would go to whatever country was the lowest cost.

Vietnam and India are not just special friends; we also have a similar economic vision and approach.

If the United States wants access to Chinese, Indian or Vietnamese markets, we must get access to theirs. U.S. protectionism is very subtle but it is very much there.

We moved to a town that's predominately Caucasian, some Hispanic and one or two black families, and they do shrimping for a living. Here come hundreds of Vietnamese doing the same occupation. So there was a lot of tension because people were saying we were taking money, shrimp, fish or whatever it is.

I don't like stuff that can only go into one set; I want stuff that can be applied across sets. It's a more real Lego building experience. And, of course, it's the same from a manufacturing point of view. I want elements that are universal; that gives me the best economics and best utilisation of the mould.

You can't have a rigid view that all new taxes are evil.

A romantic or classical view of the French approach would have been to say, 'It's a French company; let no one attack it. Let's block any merger. But the reality is Alcatel-Lucent is not a French company; it's a global company. Its main markets are China and the U.S. Its ownership is foreign; most of its managers aren't French.

Perhaps a quarter of meteoroid impacts have led to potentially profitable deposits—at least half of which have already been exploited.

An accountant is someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Socialism, when the last word is said, is merely a new economic and political system whereby more men can get food to eat.

The only thing that hurts more than paying an income tax is not having to pay an income tax.

Our football budget," he said, "is the change you are carrying around in your pants pocket.

But in practice, very few markets are "perfect." Porter's five forces framework offers a way to think systematically about imperfect markets.

Why is current industry profitability what it is? What's propping it up? What's changing? How is profitability likely to shift? What limiting factors must be overcome to capture more of the value you create?

Marx made theory... Lenin applied it with his sense of large-scale social organization... And Henry Ford made the work of the socialist state possible.

Leo Hurwicz is the father of mechanism design theory and has inspired much of my work, and Roger Myerson is an old friend and collaborator and a tremendous economist.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.