Top 157 Quotes & Sayings by Paul Krugman
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American economist Paul Krugman.
Last updated on September 16, 2024.
As I've often said, you can shop online and find whatever you're looking for, but bookstores are where you find what you weren't looking for.
I have friends, political scientists, sociologists, who all share an interest at least in certain kinds of science fiction.
The great thing about fiscal policy is that it has a direct impact and doesn't require you to bind the hands of future policymakers.
I admit it: I had fun watching right-wingers go wild as health reform finally became law.
We know that advanced economies with stable governments that borrow in their own currency are capable of running up very high levels of debt without crisis.
I think so long as fossil fuels are cheap, people will use them and it will postpone a movement towards new technologies.
But Wall Street people are in fact very smart; they're funny, they're not company men who work their way up the chain.
Debt is one person's liability, but another person's asset.
Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k).
The real danger with debt is what happens if lots of people decide, or are forced, to pay it off at the same time.
The science fiction world has a lot of people doing seriously imaginative thinking.
I don't think I've had any great success in predicting politics or social change, nor have I really tried.
The problem isn't that people don't understand how good things are. It's that they know, from personal experience, that things really aren't that good.
The goal in the end is not to win elections. The goal is to change society.
If you're doing your job right, some substantial group of people [is] going to be mad at you.
The economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth.
Economists don't usually make good speculators, because they think too much.
In short, it's a great economy if you're a high-level corporate executive or someone who owns a lot of stock. For most other Americans, economic growth is a spectator sport.
The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century ? every case of a poor nation that worked its way up to a more or less decent, or at least dramatically better, standard of living ? has taken place via globalization, that is, by producing for the world market rather than trying for self-sufficiency.
For most Americans, economic growth is a spectator sport.
There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises.
What happened after 9/11 - and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not - was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons....The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
[I]f you look at United States history since World War II, you find that of the 10 presidents who preceded Barack Obama, seven left office with a debt ratio lower than when they came in. Who were the three exceptions? Ronald Reagan and the two George Bushes.
If you want a simple model for predicting the unemployment rate in the United States over the next few years, here it is: It will be what Greenspan wants it to be, plus or minus a random error reflecting the fact that he is not quite God.
The federal government is basically an insurance company with an army.
Coming up with a good idea, with an insight into the way the world works that is really new and that you really believe in, is a deeply satisfying experience.
we should reject the attempt to divert the national conversation away from soaring inequality toward the alleged moral failings of those Americans being left behind. Traditional values aren't as crucial as social conservatives would have you believe ? and, in any case, the social changes taking place in America's working class are overwhelmingly the consequence of sharply rising inequality, not its cause.
The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century ... has taken place via globalization.
Governments do not necessarily act in the national interest, especially when making detailed microeconomic interventions. Instead, they are influenced by interest group pressures. The kinds of interventions that new trade theory suggests can raise national income will typically raise the welfare of small, fortunate groups by large amounts, while imposing costs on larger, more diffuse groups.
The fact is that the two years or so after 9/11 were a terrible time in America – a time of political exploitation and intimidation, culminating in the deliberate misleading of the nation into the invasion of Iraq. It’s probably worth pointing out that I’m not saying anything now that I wasn’t saying in real time back then, when Bush had a sky-high approval rating and any criticism was denounced as treason. And there’s nothing I’ve done in my life of which I’m more proud.
We should try to create the society each of us would want if we didn't know in advance who we'd be.
Congress has always had a soft spot for "experts" who tell members what they want to hear, whether it's supply-side economists declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or climate-change skeptics insisting that global warming is a myth.
It’s not about the budget; it’s about the power...So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.
In our country, learned ignorance is on the rise.
So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell you the answer: The higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads to unemployment.
The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in 'Metcalfe's law'–which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants–becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! 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.
Sometimes economists in official positions give bad advice; sometimes they give very, very bad advice; and sometimes they work at the OECD.
Simple doesn't mean stupid. Thinking that it does, does.
If you had to explain America's economic success with one word, that word would be "education".... Until now, the results of educational neglect have been gradual - a slow-motion erosion of America's relative position. But things are about to get much worse, as the economic crisis ... deals a severe blow to education across the board.... We need to wake up and realize that one of the keys to our nation's historic success is now a wasting asset. Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.
Under the gold standard America had no major financial panics other than in 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893, 1907, 1930, 1931, 1932, and 1933.
Economics is not a morality play.
The problem with digital books is that you can always find what you are looking for but you need to go to a bookstore to find what you weren't looking for.
I believe that the only important structural obstacles to world prosperity are the obsolete doctrines that clutter the minds of men.
Outrageous fiscal mendacity is neither historically normal nor bipartisan. It’s a modern Republican thing.
However, the fact that an economist offers a theoretical analysis does not and should not automatically command respect. What is needed is some assurance that the analysis is actually relevant.
You really have to go searching desperately to find any contemporary examples of good, old-fashioned runaway inflation.
What our economy needs is direct job creation by the government and mortgage-debt relief for stressed consumers. What it very much does not need is a transfer of billions of dollars to corporations that have no intention of hiring anyone except more lobbyists.
Seven habits that help produce the anything-but-efficient markets that rule the world.
1. Think short term.
2. Be greedy.
3. Believe in the greater fool
4. Run with the herd.
5. Overgeneralize
6. Be trendy
7. Play with other people's money
Wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.
Middle-class societies don't emerge automatically as an economy matures, they have to be CREATED through political action.
What saved the economy, and the New Deal, was the enormous public works project known as World War II, which finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy’s needs.
If Europe’s example is any guide, here are the two secrets of coping with expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don’t drive them too much.
If you want to understand opposition to climate action, follow the money.
I've always believed in expansionary monetary policy and if necessary fiscal policy when the economy is depressed.
If we discovered that, you know, space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months. ... There was a Twilight Zone episode like this in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time, we don't need it, we need it in order to get some fiscal stimulus.
Europe is often held up as a cautionary tale, a demonstration that if you try to make the economy less brutal, to take better care of your fellow citizens when they're down on their luck, you end up killing economic progress. But what European experience actually demonstrates is the opposite: social justice and progress can go hand in hand.
Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power.
I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it.
The key reason executives are paid so much now is that they appoint the members of the corporate board that determines their compensation and control many of the perks that board members count on. So it's not the invisible hand of the market that leads to those monumental executive incomes; it's the invisible handshake in the boardroom.
What Republicans have actually put on the table is almost nothing. All of the rest is just big talk. So how is the president supposed to negotiate with people who say, 'Here's my demands. By the way, I can't give you any specifics. Just make me happy'?
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