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I do not have a theory, nor do I know somebody else's theory that constitutes a satisfactory explanation of the Great Depression. It's really a very important, unexplained event and process, which I would be very interested in and would like to see explained.

— Thomas J. Sargent Conversations with Economists (1983)

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More quotes by Thomas J. Sargent

It is paradoxical that an administration that came to office rejecting the whole apparatus of Keynesian economics finds itself presiding over a stream of what threaten to be permanent deficits.

For policy, the central fact is that Keynesian policy recommendations have no sounder basis, in a scientific sense, than recommendations of non-Keynesian economists or, for that matter, non-economists.

What policymakers (and econometricians) should recognize, then, is that societies face a meaningful set of choices about alternative economic policy regimes.

My published work is just a record of my learning. I'm sharing it with people so they won't make the same mistakes that I did. It's been a painful and slow process. My work is like a journey, a journey of discovery.

Conversations with Economists (1983)

Q: “Professor Sargent, can you tell me what CD rates will be in two years?”
Sargent: “No.”

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas J. Sargent (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.