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Evan Davis

Evan Davis Quotes

Economist

Evan Davis is a distinguished economist recognized for his expertise in finance and economics, particularly within the context of the global economy. Born on April 8, 1962, he has made notable contributions to the understanding of the global economy and has been a prominent figure in the financial industry.

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Famous Evan Davis Quotes

“It’s not about the fact of the matter as such, it is about the sentiment beneath. You can apply all the usual fact-checking tools to the literal claim, but the real point is always buried in the subtitles, and no amount of correction will belie that.”

Facts Sentiments

Author:Evan Davis

“Remember the [burnt] gooseberry tart: the polite comment tells the host nothing about the pudding, but a lot about the guest.”

Book:Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

Source: Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“The information we are fed is largely based on the information we choose to consume.”

Truth Information Consume

Book:Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

Source: Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“The real point is always buried in the subtitles.”

Book:Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

Source: Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It

“Black Friday is not another bad hair day in Wall Street. It's the term used by American retailers to describe the day after the Thanksgiving Holiday, seen as the semi-official start of Christmas shopping season.”

Used Black Term Streets Hair Wall Seasons Christmas Officials Holiday Shopping Thanksgiving Friday Thanksgiving Holiday Retailers Bad Hair Christmas Shopping Black Friday Bad Hair Day

Author:Evan Davis

“Even though disciplined sleeping habits and the adrenalin of live radio ensures that we are very awake while on duty, there is evidence of a phenomenon called circadian desynchronosis which causes one's brain to function slowly at those times of day when it thinks it should be asleep, regardless how wide awake the body is.”

Thinking Should Body Causes Sleep Brain Duty Habit Evidence Function Radio Wide Awake Phenomenon Time Of Day Wide Awake

Author:Evan Davis

“At the BBC we've had plenty of women in good management jobs. It comes and goes but there's been plenty. On air, I think there's quite a bit more we can do.”

Thinking Jobs Bits Can Do Air Management Plenty Good Man Comes And Goes

Author:Evan Davis

“It's not a bad idea to occasionally spend a little time thinking about things you take for granted. Plain everyday things.”

Thinking Littles Ideas Everyday Granted Little Time Bad Ideas Everyday Things Things We Take For Granted Never Take Anything For Granted

Author:Evan Davis

“I swing both ways. I can see things from a kind of conservative point of view and from a more socially liberal or left-wing point of view.”

Way Kind I Can Left Views Wings Conservative Point Of View Swings Left Wing

Author:Evan Davis

“A chair's function is not just to provide a place to sit; it is to provide a medium for self-expression. Chairs are about status, for example. Or signalling something about oneself. That's why the words chair, seat and bench have found themselves used to describe high status professions, from academia to Parliament to the law.”

Self Law Used Found Example Expression Function Oneself Profession Mediums Seats Chairs Parliament Benches Self Expression Academia

Author:Evan Davis

“We are more likely to cheat if we see others doing so. We tend to conform to accepted norms of reasonable behaviour, rather than adhere to strict rules.”

Ifs Accepted Reasonable Behaviour Cheat Strict Conform Norm Strict Rules

Author:Evan Davis

“Being funny, it turns out, is like being a bank. It's a confidence trick. As long as everyone believes in you, you are fine.”

Believe Long Turns Fine Tricks Believe In You Being Funny

Author:Evan Davis

“For industry to settle in a country, you first need electricity; for electricity, you need some trained workers; for trained workers, you need some schools; for schools you need some money; for money, you need some industry.”

Needs Firsts Country School Industry Workers Settling Electricity

Author:Evan Davis

“Men don't know much about women. We do know when they're happy. We know when they're crying, and we know when they're pissed off. We just don't know in what order these are gonna come at us.”

Knows Men Order Cry Pissed Off

Author:Evan Davis

“It's amazing, if you know what you want to say, how fast it is to write.”

Ifs Knows Want Writing What You Want

Author:Evan Davis

“Mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of.”

Mistake Ashamed

Author:Evan Davis

“We all know that Americans love their statistics - in sport, obviously. And in finance too.”

Knows Sports Finance Statistics

Author:Evan Davis

“Even the 'Today' programme involves a balance between the worthy-but-heavy items with the worthless-but-entertainingly-light ones.”

Light Today Balance Heavy Worthy Worthless Items Programmes

Author:Evan Davis

“I actually profoundly think the world's a better place when economics is fairly boring... The more boring the better.”

Thinking World Economics Boring Better Place

Author:Evan Davis

“I don't particularly like going on about being gay or making a big thing about it, but I think it's a bit of a pain to be secretive about it.”

Thinking Bigs Pain Bits Gay Big Things Being Gay Secretive

Author:Evan Davis

“I don't want to sound like 'chirpy Evan' who's just bouncing around with his unrealistic views and doesn't understand what's going on.”

Want Sound Views

Author:Evan Davis

“If you're not making some mistakes, it probably means you're not trying hard enough.”

Ifs Trying Mean Hard Enough Mistake Trying Hard

Author:Evan Davis

“Nice guys finish last, but we get to sleep in.”

Inspirational Funny Lasts Guy Sleep Nice Drinking Nice Guy Nice Guys Finish Last

Author:Evan Davis

“Personally, I'd like us to have a few more women on the 'Today' programme.”

Today Programmes

Author:Evan Davis

“Reducing every issue to an argument can become stale but it's often a very good way of clarifying issues.”

Way Issues Argument Very Good Reducing Good Way Stale Clarifying

Author:Evan Davis

“Someday we'll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car.”

Looks Moments Humor Funny Car Someday Cynicism Plowing

Author:Evan Davis

“The key thing about me is that I'm really not very interesting.”

Interesting Keys Very Interesting Key Things

Author:Evan Davis

“The two questions that anyone ever asks me are: 'Are house prices going to go down?' and 'Is it a good time to fix my mortgage rate?'”

Two Asks House Down And Rate Ask Me Good Times Mortgage House Prices Mortgage Rate

Author:Evan Davis

“What is so striking about Liberia is that in a place where there is so much to be done, I have never seen so many people with nothing to do.”

Author:Evan Davis

“In principle, there are only three main components of spending that much matter to monetary policy: consumer spending, business investment and exports and trade.”

Matter Three Principles Policy Trade Investment Spending Consumers Components Monetary Monetary Policy

Author:Evan Davis

“Put simply, behavioural economics argues that human beings' decision-taking is guided by the evolutionary baggage which we bring with us to the present day. Evolution has made us rational to a point, but not perfectly so. It has given us emotions, for example, which programme us to override our rational brain and act more instinctively.”

Humans Made Given Human Beings Decision Emotion Brain Example Evolution Economics Arguing Rational Programmes Baggage Present Day

Author:Evan Davis

“All socio-political phenomena in the U.K. come laden with the baggage of a class-based theory or two attached to them. In the case of gay Tories, there is one particularly silly variant of the category, which asserts that gayness is bred in public schools and thus fits with Conservatism like hand in glove.”

Love Two Hands Age School Political Class Cases Theory Fit Gay Silly Categories Conservatism Public School Gloves Baggage Gayness

Author:Evan Davis

“Although being economics editor sounds impressive, it does not mean I actually edit anything. It mainly reflects two decades of title-inflation at the BBC, which has given ever more status to senior reporters, presumably because it is cheaper to do that than to offer higher pay.”

Mean Doe Two Given Sound Pay Higher Offers Economics Decades Titles Editors Reporters Senior Inflation Impressive Edits Cheaper

Author:Evan Davis

“Art can help a town by attracting a certain Bohemian population that adds life to the bars, character to the streets and a buzz to the name. Employers may then follow. But art can't do much if every town does it. There aren't enough Bohemians.”

Ifs May Doe Art Enough Character Helping Certain Names Streets Towns Add Population Bars Employers Buzz Bohemian

Author:Evan Davis

“As it happens, I have personally been something of an enthusiast for the London Olympic games, mainly on the grounds a) that a bit of wasteland will be made nice and b) that it tends to make everybody happy that their country should be the centre of world attention for a couple of weeks in their life.”

World Should Made Country Happens Games Bits Attention Nice Week Couple London Centre Olympic Games Wasteland

Author:Evan Davis

“But beginners to the World Economics Forum have to understand there is no single Davos experience, and there is no single Davos community either. There are numerous tribes who interact only at a minimal level.”

World Community Levels Economics Tribes Beginners Forums Davos

Author:Evan Davis

“Crossrail is a prime example of infrastructure. It is a rather deadly word, but I think it is exciting stuff, the civil engineering which makes Britain tick - the bridges, tunnels, power and water networks, which bind us together.”

Thinking Together Stuff Water Example Exciting Bridges Britain Prime Engineering Infrastructure Tunnels Tick Civil Engineering

Author:Evan Davis

“Historically, the British have always been rather wary of grand engineering projects - perhaps understandably, given that many of them have been delivered late and over budget.”

Has Beens Given Projects Late British Budgets Engineering

Author:Evan Davis

“I rarely come away from presenting the 'Today' programme without some sense of regret. There is always some question that I should have asked, or some point that I should have made. This is annoying but not surprising. Perfection is hard to achieve in a three-hour live programme.”

Should Made Hard Today Three Hours Achieve Regret Perfection Should Have Annoying Surprising Presenting Programmes

Author:Evan Davis

“I've always been scared of advertising folk. I've met them at parties and I've been to their offices and I've always found them intimidatingly cool. At one company I visited, they held their meetings in a caravan that had somehow been installed in the place, a rather more exotic place to gather than the typical BBC glass box.”

Found Party Company Mets Office Meetings Folks Glasses Scared Boxes Advertising Typical Exotic Caravans Exotic Places

Author:Evan Davis

“Now I can broadcast to an audience of several million people on the 'Today' programme. I can talk about the day's news. But on radio, believe it or not, we have notes and scripts. And while we might ad lib the odd wryly amusing asides, they come at the frequency of a suburban bus. About one every 90 minutes.”

People Believe I Can Might Today Millions Audience Minutes News Notes Scripts Radio Odd Bus Ads Frequency Amusing Programmes

Author:Evan Davis

“Now undoubtedly, we face some very British challenges when it comes to infrastructure. We rightly cherish our back yards and green spaces, and we'll defend them passionately when projects are announced. We live in a democracy, and we like to debate these things, often for many years.”

Years Faces Challenges Space Democracy Projects Green British Debate Cherish Yards Infrastructure

Author:Evan Davis

“One of the key problems is that the Germans know what they do because everywhere they go there's a 'made in Germany' label on it - they can feel proud of Volkswagens and Audis and Mercedes.”

Knows Feels Made Problem Keys Proud Labels Germany Volkswagens

Author:Evan Davis

“Phyllis is one of the tunnel boring machines for Crossrail and one of the most extraordinary characters I met, visiting some of the most exciting infrastructure in Britain. Crossrail is the new railway which will run from West to East right across London. It is the biggest engineering project in Europe - and Phyllis herself is not exactly dainty.”

Character Running Mets Projects Europe Machines Exciting West Extraordinary Boring East London Britain Engineering Infrastructure Tunnels Visiting Railway Dainty

Author:Evan Davis

“The fact that radio is so hopeless at delivering data makes it an uncluttered medium, offering the basic story without the detailed trappings. But it does mean that if data is important, radio is probably not your place.”

Ifs Mean Doe Important Facts Stories Radio Mediums Data Hopeless Offering Delivering

Author:Evan Davis

“The Germans are clear about what they do - cars and machine tools; the Japanese are clear about what they do - electronics; the Chinese are clear about what they do - they're the workshop of the world.”

World Clear Car Tools Machines Chinese Workshops Electronics

Author:Evan Davis

“The new industries are brainy industries and so-called knowledge workers tend to like to be near other people who are the same. Think of the City of Hollywood. People cluster. This means you have winning regions, such as London and Cambridge, and losing regions. The people who want to be top lawyers in Sunderland are hoovered up by London.”

People Thinking Want Mean Winning Cities Industry Losing Hollywood Workers London Lawyer Regions Cambridge Clusters Knowledge Workers

Author:Evan Davis

“There is a strong link between the following three things: exporting, manufacturing and the degree of saving by the population. It's complicated, but if the population doesn't save, the economy will not tend to export as much, and if it doesn't export as much, it won't manufacture enough.”

Ifs Enough Three Strong Economy Degrees Population Following Complicated Saving Links Three Things Manufacturing Exporting

Author:Evan Davis

“What comes with a job as a staff member of the BBC is a certain self-censoring that you get utterly used to. You don't say everything you think. You hold back on some things.”

Thinking Self Jobs Used Certain Members Staff Censoring Staff Members

Author:Evan Davis

“When a population saves a lot, the funds are invested outside the country as well as inside. If the Japanese invest in the United States, it pushes their exchange rate down and makes their manufacturing more competitive.”

Ifs Wells Country States United United States Down And Rate Population Fund Manufacturing

Author:Evan Davis

About the Author

Born: April 8, 1962
Known for: Economist
Quotes: 67

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