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19bd372 Under capitalism, man exploits man; while under socialism just the reverse is true. John Kenneth Galbraith
bfa11f5 The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil. John Kenneth Galbraith
11385c8 The man who is admired for the ingenuity of his larceny is almost always rediscovering some earlier form of fraud. The basic forms are all known, have all been practiced. The manners of capitalism improve. The morals may not. economics crime John Kenneth Galbraith
10f492e Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive. wealth greed John Kenneth Galbraith
2ee15a7 Wisdom, itself, is often an abstraction associated not with fact or reality but with the man who asserts it and the manner of its assertion. wisdom wall-street foolishness John Kenneth Galbraith
8108c5a Then the shit hit the fan. economics John Kenneth Galbraith
0d9926f In many ways the effect of the crash on embezzlement was more significant than on suicide. To the economist embezzlement is the most interesting of crimes. Alone among the various forms of larceny it has a time parameter. Weeks, months, or years may elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery. (This is a period, incidentally, when the embezzler has his gain and the man who has been embezzled, oddly enough, feels no loss. Th.. finance embezzlement crime John Kenneth Galbraith
e54fcf7 The shortcomings of economics are not original error but uncorrected obsolescence. The obsolescence has occurred because what is convenient has become sacrosanct. Anyone who attacks such ideas must seem to be a trifle self-confident and even aggressive. The man who makes his entry by leaning against an infirm door gets an unjustified reputation for violence. Something is to be attributed to the poor state of the door. obsolete economics John Kenneth Galbraith
8897ac5 The process by which money is created is so simple that the mind is repelled. John Kenneth Galbraith
6cbc87a If there must be madness, something may be said for having it on a heroic scale madness John Kenneth Galbraith
2fb2cb8 The threat to men of great dignity, privilege and pretense is not from the radicals they revile; it is from accepting their own myth. John Kenneth Galbraith
368e934 Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down. pessimism John Kenneth Galbraith
1cb23c5 But there is merit even in the mentally retarded legislator. He asks the questions that everyone is afraid to ask for fear of seeming simple. politics John Kenneth Galbraith
0e09231 Good writing, and this is especially important in a subject such as economics, must also involve the reader in the matter at hand. It is not enough to explain. The images that are in the mind of the writer must be made to reappear in the mind of the reader, and it is the absence of this ability that causes much economic writing to be condemned, quite properly, as abstract. writing John Kenneth Galbraith
e38a830 Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding John Kenneth Galbraith
bb744a3 Men can labor to make sense out of single steps toward the goal without ever pausing to reflect that the goal itself is ludicrous. John Kenneth Galbraith
461d168 In the world of minor lunacy, the behavior of both the utterly rational and the totally insane seems equally odd. John Kenneth Galbraith
ca4d1f6 Decision has greater virtue and force if taken after there has been eloquent dissent. u-s-politics John Kenneth Galbraith
7eddaf9 The oldest problem in economic education is how to exclude the incompetent. A certain glib mastery of verbiage-the ability to speak portentously and sententiously about the relation of money supply to the price level-is easy for the unlearned and may even be aided by a mildly enfeebled intellect. The requirement that there be ability to master difficult models, including ones for which mathematical competence is required, is a highly useful.. mathematics John Kenneth Galbraith
f3bd5c2 None of this excuses anyone from mastering the basic ideas and terminology of economics. The intelligent layman must expect also to encounter good economists who are difficult writers even though some of the best have been very good writers. He should know, moreover, that at least for a few great men ambiguity of expression has been a positive asset. But with these exceptions he may safely conclude that what is wholly mysterious in economic.. writing John Kenneth Galbraith
6a19bfd The income men derive from producing things of slight consequence is of great consequence to them. John Kenneth Galbraith
47ad73f The worst continued to worsen. What looked one day like the end proved on the next day to have been only the beginning. Nothing could have been more ingeniously designed to maximize the suffering, and also to insure that as few people as possible escape the common misfortune. The fortunate speculator who had funds to answer the first margin call presently got another and equally urgent one, and if he met that there would still be another. I.. John Kenneth Galbraith
1a38816 The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness... & politics liberal libertarian progressive conservative selfishness John Kenneth Galbraith
718dde2 Economists are generally negligent of their heroes. John Kenneth Galbraith
0fbf1f2 I would now, however, more strongly emphasize, and especially as to the United States, the inequality in income and that it is getting worse--that the poor remain poor and the command of income by those in the top income brackets is increasing egregiously. So is the political eloquence and power by which that income is defended. This I did not foresee. John Kenneth Galbraith
870c513 Those involved in mental as opposed to physical effort or who carry the responsibilities of management are presumed to require a higher payment for their submission to the purposes of organization than those who render only physical or manual service, however adept or talented that may be. This is because there is profound difference in the nature and extent of the submission that is made. The person on the shop floor or its equivalent give.. John Kenneth Galbraith
510e90b In economics, it is often professionally better to be associated with highly respectable error than uncertainly established truth. John Kenneth Galbraith
4955f4b All crisis have involved debt that, in one fashion or another, has become dangerously out of scale in relation to the underlying means of payment. John Kenneth Galbraith
6db7b7a E sumperiphora ton dioikeseon ton epikheireseon mporei na diorthothei ek bathron, an uparkhei kai to okhi kai toso eukharisto men,pragmatiko de, endekhomeno tes phulakises John Kenneth Galbraith
67e3c84 The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version. All financial innovation involves in one form or another, the creation of debt secured in greater or lesser adequacy by real assets. John Kenneth Galbraith
1836504 That economics has a considerable conceptual apparatus with an appropriate terminology can not be a serious ground for complaint. Economic phenomena, ideas, instruments of analysis exist. They require names. Education in economics is, in considerable measure, an introduction to this terminology and to the ideas that it denotes. Anyone who has difficulties with the ideas should complete his education or, following an exceedingly well-beaten .. writing John Kenneth Galbraith
cf03927 the speculative episode always ends not with a whimper but with a bang. John Kenneth Galbraith
3b9775f Speculation buys up, in a very practical way, the intelligence of those involved. John Kenneth Galbraith
3adadc7 prime threat hovering over a society of general well-being. John Kenneth Galbraith
4f814ce Speculation, it has been noted, comes when popular imagination settles on something seemingly new in the field of commerce or finance. John Kenneth Galbraith
c467555 I have sufficiently urged that all suggestions as to financial innovation be regarded with extreme skepticism. Such seeming innovation is merely some variant on an old design, new only in the brief and defective memory of the financial world. John Kenneth Galbraith
7ae517b Tenure was originally invented to protect radical professors, those who challenged the accepted order. But we don't have such people anymore at the universities, and the reason is tenure. When the time comes to grant it nowadays, the radicals get screened out. That's its principal function. It's a very good system, really - keeps academic life at a decent level of tranquility. radicals tenure universities John Kenneth Galbraith
7daefdd The process by which money is created is so simply that the mind is repelled. Where something so important is involved, a deeper mystery seems only decent. John Kenneth Galbraith
1bee8b0 Financial capacity and political perspicacity are inversely correlated. Long-run salvation by men of business has never been highly regarded if it means disturbance of orderly life and convenience in the present. So inaction will be advocated in the present even though it means deep trouble in the future. Here, at least equally with Communism, lies the threat to Capitalism. It is what causes men who know that things are going quite wrong to.. John Kenneth Galbraith
c897783 You roll back the stones, and you find slithering things. That is the world of Richard Nixon. John Kenneth Galbraith
774b0be Meetings are a great trap. ... they are indispensable when you don't want to do anything. John Kenneth Galbraith
a583c3e Any country that has Milton Friedman as an adviser has nothing to fear from a few million Arabs. John Kenneth Galbraith
504b191 Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence. John Kenneth Galbraith
ad51977 There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth. John Kenneth Galbraith
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