Quotes About Economics

The socialistic State owns all material factors of production and thus directs it.

Those economists who have recognized that the value of even the best money is variable have recommended that in settling the terms of credit transactions, that is to say, the terms on which present goods are exchanged for future goods, the medium of exchange should not be one good alone, as is usual nowadays, but a 'bundle' of goods; it is possible in theory if not in practice to include all economic goods in such a 'bundle'.

Prices change slowly because the subjective valuations of human beings change slowly.

The "Keynesian revolution" took place long before Keynes approved of it and fabricated a pseudo-scientific justification for it. What he really did was to write an apology for the prevailing policies of governments.

inertia of prices

Keynes did not teach us how to perform the "miracle . . . of turning a stone into bread,"[4] but the not at all miraculous procedure of eating the seed corn.

the Quantity Theory resembles various general theories of value (many versions of the doctrine of supply and demand, for example), which have not attempted to explain price as such but have been content to establish a law of price-variations.1

the subjective theory of value

the fundamental problem of the value of money.

What are the determinants of the objective exchange-value of money?

Ludwig von Mises

Every sort of economic organization needs not only a mechanism for production but also a mechanism for distributing what is produced.

The smaller the input required for the production of an article becomes, the more of the scarce factors of production are left for the production of other articles. But the better an entrepreneur succeeds in this regard, the more is he vilified and the more is he soaked by taxation. Increasing costs per unit of output, that is, waste, is praised as a virtue.

the relations between the equilibrium rate of interest and the money rate of interest, which will be dealt with in the Third Part of this book.

In reviewing the determinants of the rate of interest, writers emphasize over and over again that it is not the greater or smaller quantity of money that is of importance, but the greater or smaller quantity of other economic goods.

credit set business free from dependence on the simultaneous occurrence of demand and supply.

the Keynesian miracle fails to materialize; the stones do not turn into bread.

Porque tal es la ley de la democracia económica del mercado. Aquellos que satisfacen las necesidades de un número menor de personas solo recaudan menos votos -dólares- que aquellos que satisfacen las necesidades de más personas.

El sistema de ganancias hace prosperar a esos hombres que han tenido éxito en llenar las necesidades de las personas de la mejor y más barata manera posible. La riqueza solo puede adquirirse sirviendo a los consumidores. Los capitalistas pierden sus fondos tan pronto como no los invierten en aquellas líneas en las que satisfacen mejor las demandas del público.

La gente puede estar en desacuerdo sobre la cuestión de si todos deberían estudiar economía en serio. Pero una cosa es segura. Un hombre que habla o escribe públicamente sobre la oposición entre el capitalismo y el socialismo sin haberse familiarizado completamente con todo lo que la economía tiene que decir sobre estos temas es un charlatán irresponsable.

Socialism is an alternative to capitalism as potassium cyanide is an alternative to water.

It is not the fault of the entrepreneurs that the consumers, the people, the common man, prefer liquor to Bibles and detective stories to serious books, and that governments prefer guns to butter. The entrepreneur does not make greater profits in selling bad things than in selling good things. His profits are the greater the better he succeeds in providing the consumers with those things they ask for most intensely.

Every step which leads from capitalism toward planning is necessarily a step nearer to absolutism and dictatorship.

The market system is the basis of our civilization. Its only alternative is the Führer principle.