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Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan Quotes

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Famous Alan Greenspan Quotes

“Stripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes.”

IfsStatesGovernmentPoliticalWealthSupportAmountMembersProgramWideSpendingScalesFinanceVarietyWelfareProductiveMassiveMechanismAcademicSchemesTaxationDeficitResortsPolitical PowerExpendituresWelfare StateLarge ScaleJargonDeficit Spending
Author:Alan Greenspan
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“The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit. In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the hidden confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.”

IfsWayMeanMadeUseValuesProcessUnderstandingWealthRightsProtectSafeStandardsGoldDifficultyPropertyCreditSpendingStoresAbsenceSavingMade ItWelfareSchemesExpansionUnlimitedBankingInflationDeficitAbandonmentSavingsProperty RightsProtectorInsidiousAntagonismBanking SystemGold StandardDeficit Spending
Author:Alan Greenspan
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“Senator, we are groping for understanding, the knowledge you assume I possess doesn't exist' - 'The only effective regulation lies in the propensity of customers to choose alternatives, of investors to move their funds elsewhere and of labour to acquire technical skills' - 'Senator, if I seem clear to you, you must have misunderstood me' - 'Unfortunately, Senator, nobody knows where the next innovative idea is coming from. Political decisions are never random and will always lose out to innovative alternatives”

IfsKnowsIdeasSeemsMovingPoliticalLyingNextUnderstandingLosesDecisionClearIgnoranceSkillsAssumingCustomersAlternativesAcquireLabourFundInvestorsElsewhereRegulationSenatorsMisunderstoodInnovativeNobody KnowsPropensityTechnical SkillsInnovative IdeasPolitical Decisions
Author:Alan Greenspan
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“I have one other issue I'd like to throw on the table. I hesitate to do it, but let me tell you some of the issues that are involved here. If we are dealing with psychology, then the thermometers one uses to measure it have an effect. I was raising the question on the side with Governor Mullins of what would happen if the Treasury sold a little gold in this market. There's an interesting question here because if the gold price broke in that context, the thermometer would not be just a measuring tool. It would basically affect the underlying psychology.”

IfsLittlesUseHappensSidesInterestingIssuesPsychologyEffectsInvolvedToolsGoldLet MeTablesBrokeGovernorsMeasuringTreasuryThermometersGold Price
Author:Alan Greenspan
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“We ought to be opening up our borders to skilled labour from all parts of the world because [the state of the world is as follows: ] if we were to do that we would increase the supply of skilled workers that our schools have been unable to create and as a consequence of that we would lower the average wage of skills and reduce the degree of income inequality in this country.”

IfsWorldHas BeensCountryStatesSchoolOughtSkillsDegreesConsequenceIncreaseWorkersAverageIncomeOpeningInequalityBordersLabourOpening UpIncome InequalitySkilled Workers
Author:Alan Greenspan
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