Economics Quotes

“We are sure living in a peculiar time. You get morefor not working than you will for working, and morefor not raising a hog than for raising it.”

“Our country has plenty of five-cent cigars, but the trouble is they charge fifteen cents for them.”

“When everybody has got money they cut taxes, and when they're broke they raise them. That's statesmanship of the highest order.”

“Christopher Columbus was the first socialist: he didn't know where he was going, he didn?t know where he was? and he did it all at taxpayers expense.”

“It's almost worth the Great Depression to learn how little our big men know.”

“The business of government is to keep the government out of business - that is, unless business needs government aid.”

“Advertising nourishes the consuming power of men.”

“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”

“Lots of folks are forced to skimp to support a government that won't.”

“Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can't buy enough to eat.”

“Real estate is the best investment in the world because it is the only thing they're not making any more.”

“Prosperity this Winter is going to be enjoyed by everybody that is fortunate enough to get into the poor farm.”

“I think the FDIC was one of the great inventions of the American.”

“President Coolidge said, 'I don't want the Government to go into business.' Well, if I was Mr. Coolidge I wouldn't worry over that. The Government never has been accused of being a business man.”

“The trouble with land is that they're not making it anymore.”

“In my view, [the trade deficit] will create political turmoil at some point...Pretty soon, I think there will be a big adjustment.”

“It makes a difference who the treasury secretary is.”

“The government says they have loaned over One Billion dollars to the Farmers. In other words, we can't help you make any money, but we will show you where you can owe some more.”

“I mean, we'll be pounding on the guy's chest, you know, on the floor, and you know, he's not going to just jump up all of a sudden. So it makes it tough. I mean, it's tough to be in the legislature, you know, and vote for something and then people say, well, you voted all this money and you know, it's all getting spent. It isn't getting spent. It's getting invested. But it's all getting spent. Nothing's happening.”

“If the other fellow sells cheaper than you, it is called dumping. 'Course, if you sell cheaper than him, that's mass production.”

“I know things are going to get better in spite of both sides. Then when things do get better, then you'll hear the yell that will go up. The Democrats will swear that recovery was due to them. Now the Republicans, they'll say it was due to them. Nobody wanted to claim the credit for the country blowing up, but wait until it starts picking up and they'll both be on it then. See?”

“There is one rule that works in every calamity. Be it pestilence, war, or famine, the rich get richer and poor get poorer. The poor even help arrange it.”

“I mean there is no capital requirements to it or anything of the sort. And basically, I said there were possibly financial weapons of mass destruction, and they had them. They destroyed AIG. They certainly contributed to the destruction of Bear Sterns and Lehman. Although Lehman had other problems, too.”

“In economics, you always want to ask 'And then what?'”

“It's not debt per say that overwhelms an individual corporation or country. Rather it is a continuous increase in debt in relation to income that causes trouble.”