Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charles Ferguson Books
Charles Ferguson

Charles Ferguson Books

Director

Related Quotes

“If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism.”

IfsStatesWould BePoliticalTurnsPoliticsProcessReligiousUnitedUnited StatesAngryPopulationElitesUnfairImmoralExtremismRipeUnstableUneducatedPolitical Extremism
Author:Charles Ferguson
Create image

“The real challenge is figuring out how the United States can regain control of its future from its new oligarchy and restore its position as a prosperous, fair, well-educated nation. For if we don't, the current pattern of great concentration of wealth and power will worsen, and we may face the steady immiseration of most of the American population.”

IfsWellsMayRealStatesFacesPoliticalPoliticsNationsChallengesWealthUnitedUnited StatesPositionFairsPatternsPopulationCurrentsEducatedConcentrationSteadyProsperousOligarchyWell EducatedConcentration Of Wealth
Author:Charles Ferguson
Create image

“But that's not how most of the people mentioned in this book became wealthy. Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful.”

PeopleWellsChildrenBookPoliticalOpportunityPoliticsSuccessfulEconomicCrimeCreatingConnectedCommitWealthyCrookedImpunityOnly ChildBecoming Successful
Book:Inside Job: The Financiers Who Pulled Off the Heist of the Century
Create image

“A very high fraction of America's economic problems come not from our difficulties with education or globalization or competition with the Chinese or whatever. But they come from the fact that a small number of wealthy and powerful people who run dangerous and/or inefficient companies are able, through the use of money in the political process, to prevent the government from regulating them properly.”

PeopleFactsUseProblemGovernmentRunningAbleAmericaPoliticalProcessPowerfulNumbersCompanyEconomicDangerousDifficultyCompetitionChineseWealthyGlobalizationFractionsSmall NumbersEconomic Problems
Author:Charles Ferguson
Create image

“I thought I should try something relatively inexpensive, relatively contained, relatively small. I started working on a feature, a film I'd still like to make: a very talky film of people and ideas about our contemporary state with regard to relationships, marriage, sex, and romance. I started trying to educate myself about filmmaking.”

PeopleShouldTryingStillsIdeasStatesFilmRomanceSexRegardContemporaryFeaturesEducateFilmmakingInexpensive
Author:Charles Ferguson
Create image

“Any attempt to disturb the deadly routine of instruction is looked upon as sabotage. And the notion that the aims and functions of education should be determined in the local community by a close and continuous discussion among students, faculty, administration, and citizens is so visionary that it is not even seriously considered.”

ShouldCultureCommunityJusticeStudentsCitizensDiversityFunctionAimSocial JusticeNotionDeterminedLocalsAdministrationDiscussionFacultyRoutineInstructionVisionariesSabotageLocal Community
Author:Charles Ferguson
Create image

“Thus far, both political parties have been remarkably clever and effective in concealing this new reality. In fact, the two parties have formed an innovative kind of cartel—an arrangement I have termed America’s political duopoly. Both parties lie about the fact that they have each sold out to the financial sector and the wealthy. So far both have largely gotten away with the lie, helped in part by the enormous amount of money now spent on deceptive, manipulative political advertising.”

KindHas BeensTwoFactsRealityAmericaPoliticalLyingPartyAmountFinancialCleverEnormousAdvertisingWealthyArrangementsPolitical PartiesInnovativeDeceptiveManipulativeConcealingSold OutCartels
Author:Charles Ferguson
Create image

“It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud. The behaviour that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis of 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident.”

KindCultureNaturalEconomicIndustryCreatingCrisisFinancialPatternsCorruptionAccidentsOutcomesFraudBubblesTolerateBehaviourScandalMortgageExaggerationSystematicFinancial CrisisContinuation
Author:Charles Ferguson
Create image