Wretched Finance

The revolutionary poor

2010-12-24T16:23:00.001-08:00

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

Aristotle

Lonely poor

2010-12-24T16:22:00.000-08:00

There is a solitude in poverty, but a solitude which restores to each thing its value.

Albert Camus

Forever poor

2010-12-24T16:21:00.000-08:00

The poor ye have always with you.

Jesus, the Bible, Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, and John 12:8

Virture

2010-12-24T16:20:00.002-08:00

As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.

Oscar Wilde (1856-1900). ‘The Soul of Man Under Socialism’

Economic catastrophe

2010-12-24T16:20:00.001-08:00

To be broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.

Rex Stout, as stated by the character, Nero Wolfe in The League of Frightened Men (1935)

The disease

2010-12-24T16:19:00.001-08:00

Come away; poverty’s catching.

Aphra Behn (1640-1689), English dramatist, The Rover, Pt. 2. I. (1681)

Ringing the bell

2010-12-24T16:18:00.001-08:00

In truth, poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.

Walter Bagehot, The Waverley Novels (1858)

The war on poverty

2010-12-24T16:17:00.000-08:00

For the first time in our history it is possible to conquer poverty.

Lyndon B. Johnson's Special Message to Congress (March 16, 1964)

Solid values

2010-12-24T16:16:00.000-08:00

The return to solid values is always hard. Distress, panic, and hard times have marked our pathway in returning to solid values.

James A. Garfield.

Panic stricken

2010-12-24T16:14:00.000-08:00

Del Boy: You don't know nothing about antiques, do you? I mean, you know, dealers often put little holes in items like these to give it that sort of distressed look.

Rodney: Distressed? Del, this thing looks panic-stricken.

Only Fools and Horses

Common sense in a panic

2010-12-24T16:08:00.002-08:00

Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain had much of value to say about the financial crisis as it raged through the headlines this fall. Rather than shred their campaign strategies, they played it safe, as most politicians would have.

Ron Paul, in almost every speech he made during the Republican primaries, spoke of bubbles, reckless credit growth, and the "unsustainability" of present policy. So why isn't there more demand for the common-sense solutions he put forward? Because common sense is not much use in a financial panic.

Christopher Caldwell, December 15, 2008

Serial offender

2010-12-24T16:08:00.001-08:00

"The Fed, in effect, has become a serial bubble blower."

Stephen Roach, 2004

The money is always there

2010-12-24T16:04:00.000-08:00

"Cash is available and we should use that in larger amounts, as is necessary, to solve the problems of the stress of this."

Alan Greenspan, suggested the government should boost support to homeowners facing the prospect of losing their homes due to higher mortgage interest rates. December 2007,

Froth

2010-12-24T16:02:00.000-08:00

"[There are] signs of froth in some local markets where home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels."

Alan Greenspan, July 2005, in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee.

Taking care of yourself

2010-12-24T15:59:00.000-08:00

I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.

Ronald Reagan, Joke at the Gridiron Club annual dinner. (1984-03-24)

Tax, regulate, subsidize

2010-12-24T15:56:00.000-08:00

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Ronald Reagan, Remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business (1986-08-15)

Stupid class

2010-12-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

The great thing about the U.S. economy right now is that we are the smart kids in the stupid-kid class. America has fiscal problems and gridlock issues and polarity and partisanship in Congress -- and yet, compared to Japan and Europe, the U.S. looks great.

Ian Bremmer, "Capitalism's State of Play," Barron's (April 24, 2010)

No competition

2010-12-24T15:52:00.000-08:00

"Lucky for us, we were the only economy standing after World War II, and we had no serious competition for 40 years."

Thomas L. Friedman on the US economy, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (2005)

The secret plan for inflation

2010-12-24T09:00:00.001-08:00

Josh: You're going to be reading a bit today about your secret plan to fight inflation.
Bartlet: I have a secret plan to fight inflation?
Josh: No.
Bartlet: Why am I going to be reading that I do?
Josh: It was suggested in the press room that you do.
Bartlet: By who?
Josh: By me.
Bartlet: You told the press I have a secret plan to fight inflation?
Josh: No, I did not. Let me be absolutely clear, I did not do that. Except, yes, I did that.

The West Wing

Global Breakdown

2010-12-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

A global society does not mean a global state. To abolish the existence of states is neither feasible nor desirable; but insofar as there are collective interests that transcend state boundaries, the sovereignty of states must be subordinated to international law and international institutions.We live in a global economy, but the political organization of our global society is woefully inadequate.

We are bereft of the capacity to preserve peace and to counteract the excesses of the financial markets. Without these controls, the global economy, is liable to break down

George Soros, The Crisis of Global Capitalism (1998)

Checks and Balances

2010-12-24T08:53:00.000-08:00

There are no checks and balances if the government is wrong, if a private entrepreneur makes a mistake, he goes bankrupt, the losses are cut, if he bets wrong, he loses, if the gov bets wrong, they just get bigger, they just appropriate more money. It's a bottomless pit, because they either get it from the tax payers or run it off a printing press.

Peter Schiff (2009)

My brain is too small

2010-12-24T08:51:00.000-08:00

No human mind can comprehend all the knowledge which guides the actions of society.

Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (1960)

Benefit Fraud

2010-12-24T08:50:00.000-08:00

It's a mistake to think that poor people get the benefit from the welfare system. It's a total fraud. Most welfare go to the rich of this country: the military-industrial complex, the bankers, the foreign dictators, it's totally out of control.

Ron Paul, TV interview, 1987

The great plains of prosperity

2009-03-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.

Irving Fisher, economics professor at Yale University, 1929.

Fire

2009-03-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

That stock is en fuego!

Jim Cramer, Mad Money

Run for the door

2009-03-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

No one ever made a dime by panicking.

Jim Cramer, Mad Money

Infinite stupidity

2009-03-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe"

Albert Einstein

Fooling men

2009-01-30T10:24:00.001-08:00

The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible.

Bernard Baruch

Market share

2009-01-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

We don't have a monopoly. We have market share. There's a difference.

Steve Ballmer

horses and stocks

2009-01-30T10:21:00.001-08:00

The difference between playing the stock market and the horses is that one of the horses must win.

Joey Adams

honest merchants

2009-01-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.

Charles Baudelaire

Don't give up

2009-01-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

When it comes to money nobody should give up anything.

Anthony Trollope

Spiritual doom

2009-01-30T10:16:00.001-08:00

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The cost of money

2009-01-30T10:14:00.000-08:00

Money costs too much.

Ross MacDonald

Permanent unemployment

2009-01-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

As legal slavery passed, we entered into a permanent period of unemployment and underemployment from which we have yet to emerge.

Julian Bond

Globalisation again

2009-01-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

Outsourcing and globalization of manufacturing allows companies to reduce costs, benefits consumers with lower cost goods and services, causes economic expansion that reduces unemployment, and increases productivity and job creation.

Larry Elder

Deeper and deeper

2009-01-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

There is nothing left now for us but to get ever deeper and deeper into debt to the banking system in order to provide the increasing amounts of money the nation requires for its expansion and growth.

Frederick Soddy

manufacturing a crisis

2008-07-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

We are confronting a situation in which the Administration, in my view, is once again manufacturing a crisis. There is no crisis in the Social Security system. The system is not on the verge of bankruptcy.

Paul Sarbanes

lack of education

2008-07-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.

Woody Allen

bankruptcy of a soul

2008-07-15T00:19:00.000-07:00

Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.

Eric Hoffer

Hell

2008-07-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.

Frank Borman

Whack the bosses

2008-07-15T00:17:00.000-07:00

The thing that mattered was that lads like me had whacked the bosses and the landlords, had taken their factories, their lands and their banks.

Harry Pollitt

Appropriation

2008-07-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

We do all the appropriating. They do not do any of it down at the White House. They send a budget up here, and we don't have to pay any attention it to at all. We do what we want to do.

Lamar Alexander

Teacher unions

2008-07-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

Teacher unions are an interest group that acts in defense of their own interests, which means the union bosses' interests, not the members.

Peter Brimelow

The gullet of the Serpent

2008-07-15T00:12:00.000-07:00

Without the power of the Industrial Union behind it, Democracy can only enter the State as the victim enters the gullet of the Serpent.

James Connolly

applaud millions

2008-07-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

The trouble with the Labour Party leadership and the trade union leadership, they're quite willing to applaud millions on the streets of the Philippines or in Eastern Europe, without understanding the need to also produce millions of people on the streets of Britain.

Arthur Scargill

organized economic power

2008-07-15T00:05:00.001-07:00

The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers... It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.

Samuel Gompers

Service to others

2008-07-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

Muhammad Ali

Advice

2008-07-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

If it's free, it's advice; if you pay for it, it's counseling; if you can use either one, it's a miracle.

Jack Adams

Join the union

2008-07-14T23:58:00.000-07:00

Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work.

Susan B. Anthony

modest rebates

2008-07-14T23:50:00.002-07:00

In the deregulated realm of US banking and finance, crime does occasionally pay for its foul deeds, not in prison time but by making modest rebates to the victims.

William Greider

Financing the deficit

2008-07-14T23:50:00.001-07:00

To finance this trade deficit, the U.S. has to borrow from the rest of the world or sell American assets like stocks, businesses, and real estate to the rest of the world.

Martin Feldstein

Finance theory

2008-07-14T23:48:00.002-07:00

For me, as an economist, it was frustrating to have no sense of a theory of corporate finance to tie all this material together.

Merton Miller

I don't know

2008-07-14T23:48:00.001-07:00

I know what I don't know. To this day, I don't know technology, and I don't know finance or accounting.

Bernie Ebbers

comfortable ladder

2008-07-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

If US per capita income continues to grow at a rate of 1.5 percent a year, the country will have plenty of money to finance comfortable retirements and high-quality healthcare for all citizens, including those at the bottom of the wage ladder.

William Greider

Eat the children

2008-07-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

Finance, like time, devours its own children.

Honore de Balzac

finance the welfare state

2008-07-14T23:45:00.001-07:00

The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.

Jacques Delors

The universe

2008-07-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

The universe of mortgage lending has gotten to the point where there is a place in it for everybody.

Joe Mays

Personal goals

2008-06-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

As far as your personal goals are and what you actually want to do with your life, it should never have to do with the government. You should never depend on the government for your retirement, your financial security, for anything.

Drew Carey

Old age workers

2008-06-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

I look back on it, yeah, I'm in a much worse financial position than I was eight years ago. I'm going to have to go out at age 62 and kind of readdress some of that.

Bruce Babbitt

Balancing positions

2008-06-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

In the case of Enron, we balance our positions all the time.

Kenneth Lay

Fooling the foolish

2008-06-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

Am I a fool? I don't think I'm a fool. But I think I sure was fooled.

Kenneth Lay

Inflation at home

2008-06-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Domestic inflation reflects domestic monetary policy.

Martin Feldstein

Science can not replace judgement

2008-06-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

A second reason why science cannot replace judgement is the behavior of financial markets.

Martin Feldstein

Two way gain

2008-06-18T13:02:00.001-07:00

When countries open up to trade, they generally benefit, because they can sell more, then they can buy more. And trade has two-way gain.

Jeffrey Sachs

Some one else's money

2008-06-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

It's not so unusual to run out of someone else's currency.

Jeffrey Sachs

Short term debt

2008-06-18T12:59:00.002-07:00

If you have a lot of short-term debt, it means that all of that money can be demanded in a very short period of time. Technically, short-term debt means money that's coming due within a year. Typically, it means money that's coming due within 30 to 90 days.

Jeffrey Sachs

Devaluations

2008-06-18T12:59:00.001-07:00

Devaluations are never easy.

Jeffrey Sachs

Selling NAFTA

2008-06-18T12:57:00.000-07:00

"It certainly was difficult to sell NAFTA because it's always difficult to sell open markets."

Lawrence Summers

car rentals

2008-06-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

"In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car."

Lawrence Summers

Dumping on the poor

2008-06-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

"I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to it."

Lawrence Summers

Not enough pollution

2008-06-18T12:54:00.001-07:00

"I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted."

Lawrence Summers

Children in Asia

2008-06-18T12:53:00.001-07:00

"There are children who are working in textile businesses in Asia who would be prostitutes on the streets if they did not have those jobs."

Lawrence Summers

Globalization is contagious

2008-06-18T12:52:00.001-07:00

"Contagion has become very much a phenomenon, and it's a phenomenon of globalization."

Lawrence Summers

Globalization, US style

2008-06-18T12:49:00.000-07:00

"US companies have been able to increase their profits through downsizing in the US, through colonizing other people's resources, and through the increase of globalization."

David Korten

Unfunded social security

2008-06-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

"Social Security represents an $11 trillion unfunded obligation. And when I say unfunded obligation, I mean we have to come up with $11 trillion at some point to make the system whole."

John W. Snow

History in the future

2008-06-18T12:46:00.001-07:00

"History shows you don't know what the future brings."

Rick Wagoner

Bankruptcy pain

2008-06-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

"A lot of other things come along with Chapter 11, which basically end up in a lot of pain."

Rick Wagoner

fair exchange

2008-06-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

"We believe in fair exchange rates and Japan doesn't practice that. They have massive U.S. dollar reserves, and they use them to intervene regularly."

Rick Wagoner

cars on the dealer lot

2008-06-18T12:43:00.001-07:00

"Generally, cars were not built to sit on dealer lots. It encourages the wrong kind of behavior in the whole system."

Rick Wagoner

Japanese banking

2008-06-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

"With weak balance sheets, banks tend to continue lending unprofitable businesses and leave them existing."

Toshihiko Fukui

Good tax

2008-06-16T13:45:00.001-07:00

"There is no such thing as a good tax."

Winston Churchill

Going to Europe

2008-06-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

"That's why so many stars are making pictures in Europe today. The tax guys are making thieves out of everybody."

Bud Abbott

Trust

2008-06-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

"Deciding whether to trust or credit a person is always an uncertain task."

Aldrich Ames

Eating the children

2008-06-16T13:40:00.001-07:00

"Finance, like time, devours its own children."

Honore de Balzac

Saying no

2008-06-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

"The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes."

Tony Blair

Thistles and gold

2008-06-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

"A man that hoards up riches and enjoys them not, is like an ass that carries gold and eats thistles."

Richard Burton

cursed gold

2008-06-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

"O cursed lust of gold; when for thy sake, The fool throws up his interest in both worlds, First starved in this, then damn'd in that to come."

Robert Blair

Showing up

2008-06-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

"Seventy percent of success in life is showing up."

Woody Allen

A gold watch

2008-06-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

"I'm very proud of my gold pocket watch. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch. "

Woody Allen

gold cards

2008-06-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

"I like a man who can be a real friend, has a good sense of humor, a good pair of shoes and a healthy gold card."

Victoria Adams

Climbing the ladder

2008-06-16T13:16:00.001-07:00

"You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb."

Andrew Carnegie

growing friendship

2008-06-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

"Mr. Morgan buys his partners; I grow my own."

Andrew Carnegie

watching is better than listening

2008-06-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do."

Andrew Carnegie

yesterday's growth

2008-06-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

"The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth."

Warren Buffett

a reputation for brilliance

2008-06-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

"When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact. "

Warren Buffett

success in sport

2008-06-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

"Success in management and success in sport are derived from the same basic principles."

Will Carling

developing people

2008-06-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

"The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work."

Agha Hasan Abedi

Doing it for the money

2008-06-16T13:05:00.002-07:00

"I do them all for the money, I really do."

William H. Macy

The power of money

2008-06-16T13:05:00.001-07:00

"What is there that money will not do?"

Anthony Trollope