The whole financial structure of Wall Street seems to rise or fall on the mere fact that the Federal Reserve Bank raises or lowers the amount of interest. Any business that can’t survive a one percent change must be skating on thin ice.
Why even the poor farmer took a raise of another ten percent just to get a loan from the bank, and nobody from the government paid any attention. But you let Wall Street have a nightmare and the whole country has to help to get them back into bed again.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.
—John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist
Give me a one-handed economist! All my economics say, “On the one hand? on the other.”
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life. 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. 3. Never spend your money before you have it. 4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. 5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. 6. We never repent of having eaten too little. 7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened. 9. Take things always by their smooth handle. 10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The history of the twentieth century – America’s century! – has been pretty much a history of rising prices… inflation is itself a problem. But the legitimate and hysterical fears of inflation are – quite aside from the evil of inflation itself – likely, in their own right, to be problems. In short, I fear inflation. And I fear the fear of inflation. Avoiding inflation is not an absolute imperative, but rather is one of a number of conflicting goals that we must pursue and that we may often have to compromise. Even if the military outlook were serene – and it is not – modern democracies must expect in the future to be much of the time at, or near, the point where inflation is a concern. Our greatest economic problem will be to face that concern realistically, to weigh inflation’s quantitative evil against the evils of actions taken against it, to develop methods of adjusting to the residue of inflation which attainment of the ‘golden mean’ might involve. The challenge is great but the prognosis is cheerful.
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
Few are sufficiently sensible of the importance of that economy in reading which selects, almost exclusively, the very first order of books. Why, except for some special reason, read an inferior book, at the very time you might be reading one of the highest order?
—John W. Foster
No man is rich whose expenditures exceed his means; and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history.
—Fidel Castro (1927–2016) Cuban Statesman, Revolutionary
October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
The animals that depend on instinct have an inherent knowledge of the laws of economics and of how to apply them; Man, with his powers of reason, has reduced economics to the level of a farce which is at once funnier and more tragic than Tobacco Road.
—James Thurber
If your outgo exceeds your income your upkeep will be your downfall.
—Anonymous
Be thrifty, but not covetous.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
We are enjoying sluggish times and not enjoying them very much.
—George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American Republican Statesman, 41st President
In economics the majority is always wrong.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation of man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations; as long as you have not shown it to be “uneconomic” you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper.
—E. F. Schumacher (1911–77) German Mathematician, Economist
Economy is too late when you are at the bottom of your purse.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
So-called “austerity,” the stoic injunction, is the path towards universal destruction. It is the old, the fatal, competitive path. “Pull in your belt” is a slogan closely related to “gird up your loins,” or the guns-butter metaphor.
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. Anything that is disagreeable must surely have beneficial economic effects.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people.
—Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) British Economist, Social Philosopher
I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
There can be economy only where there is efficiency.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The truth is, we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
In the usual (though certainly not in every) public decision on economic policy, the choice is between courses that are almost equally good or equally bad. It is the narrowest decisions that are most ardently debated. If the world is lucky enough to enjoy peace, it may even one day make the discovery, to the horror of doctrinaire free-enterprisers and doctrinaire planners alike, that what is called capitalism and what is called socialism are both capable of working quite well.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Economics and politics are the governing powers of life today, and that’s why everything is so screwy.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
There is much of economic theory which is pursued for no better reason than its intellectual attraction; it is a good game. We have no reason to be ashamed of that, since the same would hold for many branches of mathematics.
—John Hicks (1904–89) English Economist
An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
Economic progress, in capitalist society, means turmoil.
—Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian-American Political Economist, Sociologist
No nation was ever ruined by trade.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Scarcity creates value.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
I learned more about economics from one South Dakota dust storm than I did in all my years in college.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
If you took all the economists in the world and laid them end-to-end, they couldn’t reach a conclusion
—Unknown
Mere parsimony is not economy…. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy…. Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists, not in saving, but in selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
An economist is someone who knows more about money than the people who have it.
—Unknown
How great, my friends, is the virtue of living upon a little!
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
I think, without question, that unemployment of more than 6 per cent is something to be concerned about. You don’t push the panic button, but you don’t relax and enjoy it either… I myself don’t believe in a numbers game in which you give a maximum tolerable percentage, because I think, truly, it does vary with the times… I would hesitate to specify the figure today, but I will say this: it would be, in my mind, less than a 4 per cent figure – that is, for the period ahead. I would not, realistically, think we could hope for a 2 per cent figure in the near future, as certain European countries have been able to do. But I do think that if we are pretty zealous in this matter and insist upon getting low figures – say, 3.5 per cent – then our very success in accomplishing that may lead to a new epoch just beyond when we could hope to go below 3 per cent…
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
Various experts, here and abroad, believe that the immediate postwar inflationary climate has now been converted into an epoch of price stability. One hopes this cheerful diagnosis is correct. However, a careful survey of the behavior of prices and costs shows that our recent stability in the wholesale price index has come in a period of admittedly high unemployment and slackness in our economy. For this reason it is premature to believe that the restoration of high employment will no longer involve problems concerning the stability of prices.
Economists are not yet agreed how serious this new malady of inflation really is. Many feel that new institutional programs, other than conventional fiscal and monetary policies, must be devised to meet this new challenge. But whatever the merits of the varying views on this subject, it should be made manifest that the goal of high employment and effective real growth cannot be abandoned because of the problematical fear that re-attaining prosperity in America may bring with it some difficulties; if recovery means a reopening of the cost-push problem, then we have no choice but to move closer to the day when that problem has to be successfully grappled with.
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
Commerce changes the fate and genius of nations.
—Thomas Gray (1716–71) English Poet, Book Collector
If all the economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems—the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and behavior and religion.
—John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist
The science hangs like a gathering fog in a valley, a fog which begins nowhere and goes nowhere, an incidental, unmeaning inconvenience to passers-by.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
A force that operates year-in and year-out, whenever we are at high employment, to push up prices. It’s a price creep, not a price gallop; but the bad thing about it is that, instead of setting in only after you have reached overfull employment, the suspicion is dawning that it may be a problem that plagues us even when we haven’t arrived at a satisfactory level of employment.
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
Economic growth may one day turn out to be a curse rather than a good, and under no conditions can it either lead into freedom or constitute a proof for its existence.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Commerce is a game of skill, which every man cannot play, which few men can play well. The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call commonsense; a man of strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune; and so, in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this, and believe in magic, in all parts of life. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent-for every effect a perfect cause-and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher