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Economy Quotes

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Economy Quotes

“Governments of all stripes want to deliver growth and rebalance their economies now that they have learned the hard way that, left to their own devices, markets pick expensive banking losers.”

Way Want Hard Government Left Growth Economy Picks Expensive Devices Loser Banking Stripes Hard Way

Author:Frances O'Grady

“As the economy faces such difficulties, more tough questions need to be asked about what the Tories would do if elected. Their ideology of free markets and small government needs challenging. That has to be part of our job.”

Ifs Needs Government Jobs Faces Challenges Economy Tough Difficulty Ideology Free Market Small Government Tough Questions

Author:Lucy Powell

“I saw the government really using the excuse of a weak economy and a financial crisis to create more government and to push onto the American entrepreneurial society more and more restraints and government activity.”

Government Economy Saws Activity Weak Crisis Financial Excuse Restraint Entrepreneurial Financial Crisis

Author:Rob Portman

“Instead of focusing on growing jobs and reigniting our economy, President Obama focused on growing government and tried to remake the United States into the image of the debt-laden countries of Europe. His approach has been more spending, more regulation, and higher taxes.”

Has Beens Country States Government Jobs President United United States Economy Growing Higher Taxes Approach Europe Debt Focused Spending President Obama Regulation Remakes

Author:Rob Portman

“When we get the private sector going through job creation and growth, then the governments at all level have revenues to do the things that they need to do. And that's why it's so important to get this economy moving, to get jobs created. We can't keep going on with this anemic recovery.”

Needs Important Government Jobs Moving Growth Levels Economy Creation Recovery Keep Going Revenue Private Sector Job Creation

Author:Jim Talent

“Enforced by genetics, sexual reproduction, perspective, and experience, the most manifest characteristic of human beings is their diversity. The freer an economy is, the more this human diversity of knowledge will be manifested. By contrast, political power originates in top-down processes-governments, monopolies, regulators, and elite institutions- all attempting to quell human diversity and impose order. Thus power always seeks centralization.”

“Government is, by its very nature, a destroyer of liberties; the Obama administration, specifically, is promising to interfere with the economy and the health care system so profoundly that Washington will soon have us all in chains.”

Government Care Liberty Economy Chains Administration Health Care Interfere Destroyers Health Care System

Author:Thomas Frank

“You know, in a business, you have to operate on the basis of voluntary investment by individuals in a cause. With government, there is no voluntary effort to invest capital. It's just taken and invested. And the same accountability is not at play. The same natural forces in the economy are not at play.”

Knows Play Government Individual Force Causes Natural Effort Economy Taken Bases Investment Accountability

Author:Mike Lee

“Republican governors are leading the way in helping the private sector create new jobs, reforming government and getting our economy back on track.”

Way Helping Government Jobs Economy Republican Track Governors Private Sector New Job Back On Track Leading The Way

Author:Bob McDonnell

“You don't grow the economy by growing government.”

Government Grows Economy Growing

Author:Robert Metcalfe

“The FHA's success provides strong evidence that government can and should play a role in the nation's mortgage finance system. It also demonstrates that although government intervention in the economy during the Great Recession was messy, things would have been a lot messier without it.”

Should Has Beens Play Government Strong Nations Roles Economy Evidence Finance Intervention Messy Mortgage Recessions Government Intervention Great Recession

Author:Mark Zandi

“It has become fashionable to rail against government intervention in the economy, and the FHA is a favorite example by those trying to show the government's overreach. In reality, the FHA shows how government action during the Great Recession forestalled a much worse economic fate.”

Trying Shows Reality Government Action Economy Fate Economic Example Intervention Fashionable Recessions Rail Government Intervention Great Recession

Author:Mark Zandi

“It is hard to be enthusiastic about the economy's prospects when house prices are falling: Households spend less, small business owners can't use homes as collateral for loans and local governments are forced to cut jobs and programs as property-tax revenue disappears.”

“The free-trade idea, logically applied, will abolish usury; and with usury will disappear the chief bone of contention between labor and capital. But, just at this point, free-traders go over to the enemy; and many writers on political economy, in flat contradiction of the essential principles of that science, have made elaborate arguments to prove self-government in finance, impossible! What shall we think of men who, having dethroned kings, demolished popes, destroyed slave oligarchies and assailed tariff monopoly, advise submission to the most oppressive and dishonest of despotisms, Usury?”

“To my mind, there is a solution which has to do with democracy, because democratic governments are subject to the will of the people. So, if the people will it, you can actually create international institutions through the democratic states.”

People Ifs Mind States Government Economy Democracy Subjects Solutions Institutions Democratic International Democratic Government

Author:George Soros

“A government that seizes control of the economy for the good of the people ends up seizing control of the people for the good of the economy”

People Ends Government Economy Seizing

Author:Bob Dole

“But I think the global economy will understand that the United States has the ability to meet its obligations. But it's not going to be able to do it over the long term if we can't control the growth of government.”

Ifs Thinking Long States Government Able Growth Term Ability United United States Economy Obligation Long Term Global Economy

Author:Charles Bass

“The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.”

Government Economy Periods Depression Privacy Inherent Severe Unemployment Great Depression Instability Mismanagement

Book:Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition

Source: Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition

“The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people.”

People Way Government Black Freedom Economy Economics Opening Working It Free Market Enabling Opening Up Market Economy Free Market Capitalism

Author:Milton Friedman

“Civil servants are fully aware of the challenges the British economy faces. They are, after all, working tirelessly and professionally to support the coalition government through the current challenges, every day, and in every part of Britain.”

Government Faces Challenges Support Economy Currents British Servant Britain Coalitions Civil Servants British Economy

Author:Gus O'Donnell, Baron O'Donnell

“The biggest threat to the American people today lies with the United States government. ... [T]he long-term solution is to dismantle, not reform, the iron fist of the welfare state and the controlled economy. This includes the end (not the reform) of the IRS, the DEA, the BATF, the SEC, the FDA, HUD, the departments of HHS, Labor, Agriculture, and energy, and every other agency that takes money from some and gives it to others or interferes with peaceful behavior.”

“Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the state. Let the Government do this: the People will assuredly do the rest.”

“We certainly see opportunities in Vietnam for talented people to have jobs in the IT sector, including the improvement of the efficiency of the economy and the government.”

People Government Jobs Opportunity Economy Including Improvement Vietnam Efficiency

Author:Bill Gates

“It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.”

States Government Would Be Goal Economy Foolish Alternatives Aesthetic Custodians

Author:John Kenneth Galbraith

“In studying the fate of our forest king, we have thus far considered the action of purely natural causes only; but, unfortunately, man is in the woods, and waste and pure destruction are making rapid headway. If the importance of the forests were even vaguely understood, even from an economic standpoint, their preservation would call forth the most watchful attention of government”

Source: JOHN MUIR Ultimate Collection: Travel Memoirs, Wilderness Essays, Environmental Studies & Letters (Illustrated): Picturesque California, The Treasures of the Yosemite, Our National Parks, Steep Trails, Travels in Alaska, A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf, Save the Redwoods, The Cruise of the Corwin and more

“Education is 'the guardian genius of our democracy.' Nothing really means more to our future, not our military defenses, not our missiles or our bombers, not our production economy, not even our democratic system of government. For all of these are worthless if we lack the brain power to support and sustain them.”

“If an economy in the doldrums could drift indefinitely, the price of government inaction might be graver by far than the consequences of bold unorthodoxy.”

Ifs Government Might Economy Consequence Inaction Doldrums

Book:The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers

Source: The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers

“There is a basic lesson on financial crises that governments tend to wait too long, underestimate the risks, want to do too little. And it ultimately gets away from them, and they end up spending more money, causing much more damage to the economy.”

Want Littles Long Ends Government Waiting Economy Risk Lessons Crisis Financial Spending Damage Get Away More Money Underestimate Financial Crisis

Author:Timothy Geithner

“Keynes was chief economic adviser to the British government and largely responsible for keeping the British economy afloat at a time when more than half of our gross national product, and all of our foreign exchange, was being spent on the war. I was lucky to be present at one of his rare appearances in Cambridge, when he gave a lecture with the title "Newton, the Man." Four years later he died of heart failure, precipitated by overwork and the hardships of crossing the Atlantic repeatedly in slow propeller-driven airplanes under wartime conditions.”

“The economy - once a great scatter of small productive units in autonomous balance, has become dominated by two or three hundred giant corporations, administratively and politically interrelated... The political order, once a decentralized set of several dozen states with a weak spinal cord, has become a centralized executive establishment which has taken up into itself many powers previously scattered... The military order, once a slim establishment in a context of distrust fed by state militia, has become the largest and most expensive feature of government.”

“Even more fundamental than housing to the global financial economy is the idea that the U.S. government is a safe asset.”

Ideas Government Economy Safe Fundamentals Financial Assets Housing

Author:Ezra Klein

“The difference between [socialism and fascism] is superficial and purely formal, but it is significant psychologically: it brings the authoritarian nature of a planned economy crudely into the open. The main characteristic of socialism (and of communism) is public ownership of the means of production, and, therefore, the abolition of private property. The right to property is the right of use and disposal. Under fascism, men retain the semblance or pretense of private property, but the government holds total power over its use and disposal.”

“Germany is a fascinating role model. The Germans have maintained their manufacturing edge despite being a high-tax, high-regulation economy. Why? Because the government really set about ensuring that it maintained funding for technical training, technical advancements and programs. It made a concerted effort to retain high-end, complex manufacturing -- the kind of BMW model, if you will. And they've done that so successfully that Germany, which has a quarter of America's population, exports more than America does.”

“As the United States continues its slow but steady recovery from the depths of the financial crisis, nobody actually wants a massive austerity package to shock the economy back into recession, and so the odds have always been high that the game of budgetary chicken will stop short of disaster. Looming past the cliff, however, is a deep chasm that poses a much greater challenge -- the retooling of the country's economy, society, and government necessary for the United States to perform effectively in the twenty-first century.”

“Populism is at its essence just determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government. One big difference between real populism and what the Tea Party thing is, is that real populists understand that government has become a subsidiary of corporations. So you can't say, let's get rid of government. You need to be saying let's take over government.”

“There is no example on the planet of a successful economy with broadly shared prosperity and a shrinking, weak government.”

Government Economy Successful Example Planets Weak Prosperity Shrinking Weak Government

Author:William J. Clinton

“America is now a socialist economy. The definition of a socialist economy is when 50% or more of your economy is dependent on the federal government.”

Government America Economy Definitions Dependent Socialist Federal Government Socialist Economy

Author:Christine O'Donnell

“The well-being of the British people and the health of our economy are far more important than any government's commitment to a particular strategy, but to change course now would be fatal to the whole counter-inflation strategy.”

People Wells Important Whole Government Would Be Courses Economy Particular Commitment Strategy British Well Being Inflation

Author:Geoffrey Howe

“Accidents have already become an important factor restricting the development of a harmonious economy and society, and have attracted the strong attention of the Chinese government and society”

Important Government Strong Attention Economy Development Accidents Factors Chinese Harmonious Government And Society Chinese Government

Author:Li Yizhong

“Authoritarian governments are now trying to ensure that the increasingly free flow of ideas and information through cyberspace fuels their economies without threatening their political power.”

Trying Ideas Government Political Economy Information Flow Fuel Threatening Political Power Cyberspace Authoritarian Government

Author:Ian Bremmer

“I largely agree with those that hold that Government should not in general interfere with the course of the economy merely on the strength of its own commercial judgment. If we cannot rely on the judgment of individual businessmen, taking their own risks, we have no future anyway.”

Ifs Should Government Courses Individual Economy Risk Judgment Agree Rely Interfere Businessman

Author:John James Cowperthwaite

“I still believe that, in the long run, the aggregate of the decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is likely to do less harm than the centralized decisions of a Government; and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster. As I said earlier in this debate, our economic medicine may be painful but it is fast and powerful because it can act freely.”

“Deficit financing proper is rather the process whereby a Government spends more money that it withdraws from the economy by taxation, borrowing, running down reserves, etc.; thereby causing in most circumstances, and very acutely in ours, monetary inflation and severe pressure on the balance of payments.”

Government Running Process Economy Balance Circumstances Pressure Etc More Money Reserves Severe Taxation Inflation Deficit Payment Monetary Borrowing Financing

Author:John James Cowperthwaite

“From its founding, [Nevada] has always struggled to belong. It has had a series of masters--the mining industry, the railroads, the federal government, and now gaming and tourism--that have driven the state's economy and compelled its direction.”

States Government Economy Masters Industry Series Driven Federal Government Founding Compelled Tourism Railroads Gaming Mining Nevada

Book:The Making of Modern Nevada

Source: The Making of Modern Nevada

“If we fixed a hangnail the way our government fixes the economy, we'd slam a car door on it.”

Ifs Way Government Economy Doors Car Fixed Slam

Author:Cullen Hightower

“Despite Russia's move to raise interest rates this week, the value of the ruble has continued to crash. Russia's economy is so bad, Edward Snowden had to put government secrets on Craigslist.”

Government Moving Values Interest Secret Economy Week Raises Rate Russia Despite Crash Interest Rate Snowden Craigslist

Author:Jimmy Fallon

“We forget today that Britain still depends for its livelihood and, indeed, its day-to-day survival, on the sea. But the Royal Navy is now pitifully small and has been reduced in size by the current Government, seeking economies to finance its social programmes. Fine while there is no threat to our security. But what use would schools and hospitals be if we could not protect our imports?”

“When I was Governor, Louis Kelso went out of his way to brief me. I was very impressed, but I was never able to get any of the economists in state government to give him the help his plan deserves.”

Way Giving States Helping Wisdom Government Able Politics Economy Plans Deserve Liberalism Governors Impressed Economist State Government

Author:Jerry Brown

“The whole Jeffersonian ideal was that people are temporarily in government. Government is not the basic reality. People are. The private sector. And government is just a limited power to make things go better.”

People Whole Wisdom Reality Government Politics Economy Ideals Liberalism Private Sector

Book:Thoughts

Source: Thoughts

“We know that the only alternative to private competition is government monopoly of enterprise. We know that when government monopolizes production, distribution, and employment, it is no longer the servant of men - it is their master. And, therefore, we know that economic liberty and political liberty are inseparable parts of the same ball of wax - that we must keep them both, or we shall lose them both.”