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Irving Fisher

Irving Fisher Biography

Economist

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“The U. S. is headed toward a period of business depression... beginning within the next two years, which may exceed that which preceded the War. ... The only thing that will save us is a new gold policy or the discovery of a new process or additional gold fields. If the fall [of gold production] is not prevented by design or accident we shall throttle business, wringing out all profits and experiencing all the evils of deflation.”

IfsYearsMayTwoWarFallEvilNextProcessPolicyDesignFieldsPeriodsDiscoveryGoldInvestingProfitProductionsAccidentsTwo YearsExceedThrottleDeflationNew Processes
Author:Irving Fisher
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“If two parties, instead of being a bank and an individual, were an individual and an individual, they could not inflate the circulating medium by a loan transaction, for the simple reason that the lender could not lend what he didn't have, as banks can do. Only commercial banks and trust companies can lend money that they manufacture by lending it.”

IfsTwoReasonIndividualCan DoSimplePartyCompanyMediumsLoanTransactionsLendingLendersCommercial Banks
Author:Irving Fisher
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“The effort of the economist is to "see," to picture the interplay of economic elements. The more clearly cut these elements appear in his vision, the better; the more elements he can grasp and hold in his mind at once, the better. The economic world is a misty region. The first explorers used unaided vision. Mathematics is the lantern by which what before was dimly visible now looms up in firm, bold outlines. The old phantasmagoria disappear. We see better. We also see further.”

WorldMindFirstsUsedEffortVisionCuttingEconomicElementsMathematicsMathDisappearMathematicalFirmVisibleRegionsEconomistOutlinesExplorersLanternsMisty
Book:Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices, and Appreciation and Interest
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“The real scientific study of the distribution of wealth has, we must confess, scarcely begun. The conventional academic study of the so-called theory of distribution into rent, interest, wages, and profits is only remotely related to the subject. This subject, the causes and cures for the actual distribution of capital and income among real persons, is one of the many now in need of our best efforts as scientific students of society.”

NeedsPersonsRealCausesInterestWealthEffortStudySubjectsStudentsTheoryProfitIncomeCuresRelatedAcademicConventionalWagesDistributionBest EffortReal PersonDistribution Of Wealth
Author:Irving Fisher
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“The public psychology of going into debt for gain passes through several more or less distinct phases: (a) the lure of big prospective dividends or gains in income in the remote future; (b) the hope of selling at a profit, and realizing a capital gain in the immediate future; (c) the vogue of reckless promotions, taking advantage of the habituation of the public to great expectations; (d) the development of downright fraud, imposing on a public which had grown credulous and gullible.”

BigsRealizingPsychologyDevelopmentExpectationsGainsAdvantageProfitDebtIncomeSellingFraudPhasesPromotionRecklessImposingLureVogueDividendsGreat ExpectationsTaking AdvantageGullibleCapital Gains
Author:Irving Fisher
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