The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems — the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and behavior and religion.
—John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist
The history of the twentieth century – America’s century! – has been pretty much a history of rising prices… inflation is itself a problem. But the legitimate and hysterical fears of inflation are – quite aside from the evil of inflation itself – likely, in their own right, to be problems. In short, I fear inflation. And I fear the fear of inflation. Avoiding inflation is not an absolute imperative, but rather is one of a number of conflicting goals that we must pursue and that we may often have to compromise. Even if the military outlook were serene – and it is not – modern democracies must expect in the future to be much of the time at, or near, the point where inflation is a concern. Our greatest economic problem will be to face that concern realistically, to weigh inflation’s quantitative evil against the evils of actions taken against it, to develop methods of adjusting to the residue of inflation which attainment of the ‘golden mean’ might involve. The challenge is great but the prognosis is cheerful.
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
Scarcity creates value.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I think, without question, that unemployment of more than 6 per cent is something to be concerned about. You don’t push the panic button, but you don’t relax and enjoy it either… I myself don’t believe in a numbers game in which you give a maximum tolerable percentage, because I think, truly, it does vary with the times… I would hesitate to specify the figure today, but I will say this: it would be, in my mind, less than a 4 per cent figure – that is, for the period ahead. I would not, realistically, think we could hope for a 2 per cent figure in the near future, as certain European countries have been able to do. But I do think that if we are pretty zealous in this matter and insist upon getting low figures – say, 3.5 per cent – then our very success in accomplishing that may lead to a new epoch just beyond when we could hope to go below 3 per cent…
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
Various experts, here and abroad, believe that the immediate postwar inflationary climate has now been converted into an epoch of price stability. One hopes this cheerful diagnosis is correct. However, a careful survey of the behavior of prices and costs shows that our recent stability in the wholesale price index has come in a period of admittedly high unemployment and slackness in our economy. For this reason it is premature to believe that the restoration of high employment will no longer involve problems concerning the stability of prices.
Economists are not yet agreed how serious this new malady of inflation really is. Many feel that new institutional programs, other than conventional fiscal and monetary policies, must be devised to meet this new challenge. But whatever the merits of the varying views on this subject, it should be made manifest that the goal of high employment and effective real growth cannot be abandoned because of the problematical fear that re-attaining prosperity in America may bring with it some difficulties; if recovery means a reopening of the cost-push problem, then we have no choice but to move closer to the day when that problem has to be successfully grappled with.
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Commerce is a game of skill, which every man cannot play, which few men can play well. The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call commonsense; a man of strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune; and so, in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this, and believe in magic, in all parts of life. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent-for every effect a perfect cause-and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
No man is rich whose expenditures exceed his means; and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
The science hangs like a gathering fog in a valley, a fog which begins nowhere and goes nowhere, an incidental, unmeaning inconvenience to passers-by.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people.
—Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) British Economist, Social Philosopher
A force that operates year-in and year-out, whenever we are at high employment, to push up prices. It’s a price creep, not a price gallop; but the bad thing about it is that, instead of setting in only after you have reached overfull employment, the suspicion is dawning that it may be a problem that plagues us even when we haven’t arrived at a satisfactory level of employment.
—Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) American Economist