83 quotes
By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's.
The deficit is not nearly the monster some people imagine.
Peddling Prosperity (1994)
If growth in East Asia is indeed running into diminishing returns, however, the conventional wisdom about an Asian-centered world economy needs some rethinking.
Pop Internationalism (1996)
Ronald Reagan stands accused of inflicting a huge burden of debt upon his country.
Peddling Prosperity (1994)
The usual and basic Keynesian answer to recessions is a monetary expansion.
Peddling Prosperity (1994)
Homo economicus is an implausible caricature, but a highly productive one, and no useful alternative has yet been found.
Development, Geography, and Economic Theory (1995)
Many of the stories economists tell take the form of models—for whatever else they are, economic models are stories about how the world works.
Economics (2015)
Do some homework to find out what these people really want. I’m not talking about deeply hidden motives; usually the true goal is in the public domain.
… politics determine who has the power, not who has the truth.
The Keynesian answer to a liquidity trap is for the government to do what the private sector will not: spend.
Peddling Prosperity (1994)
One in four Texans lacks health insurance, the highest proportion in the nation.
Sometimes economists in official positions give bad advice; sometimes they give very, very bad advice; and sometimes they work at the OECD.
Economists can often be remarkably obtuse, failing to see things that are right in front of them. But sometimes a bit of obtuseness is not entirely a bad thing.
Development, Geography, and Economic Theory (1995)
With great wealth comes great pettiness.
Democrats have to figure out why the white working class just voted overwhelmingly against its own economic interests, not pretend that a bit more populism would solve the problem.
It fell to the British economist John Maynard Keynes to provide a clear story about what happens during a recession, and some useful advice about how to get out of one.
Peddling Prosperity (1994)
This is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics.
If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.
Most economists, to the extent that they think about the subject at all, regard the Great Depression of the 1930s as a gratuitous, unnecessary tragedy.
The Return of Depression Economics and The Crisis of 2008 (2009)
It's all about how can we spin what's happening out there to do what we want to do.