Alan Greenspan Infosite
Alan Greenspan Quotes
• I thought that the initiative that the Senate produced was very important and very effective
• Whatever you tax, you get less of.
• In retrospect, I see nothing that we did that was inappropriate in terms of policy
• an accident waiting to happen.
• There are no easy choices. Easy choices are long gone.
• If we delay, the adjustments could be abrupt and painful
• as many uncertainties over the next 18 years as it has over the past 18.
• I find it utterly inconceivable, frankly, that we can have the type of potential fiscal outlook, which now confronts us over the next 15 to 20 years which, unless addressed, will not have a significant impact on long-term interest rates,
• I thought it was an exceptionally good study,
• The fundamentals are in place for a return to sustained healthy growth
• I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I've said
• I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well.
• I do not deny that many appear to have succeeded in a material way by cutting corners and by manipulating associates, both in their professional and in their personal lives. But material success is possible in this world and far more satisfying when it comes without exploiting others.
• The Fact that our economical models at The Fed, the best in the world, have been wrong for fourteen straight quarters, does not mean they will not be right in the fifteenth quarter
• To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education - literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills.
• Anything that we can do to raise personal savings is very much in the interest of this country," Greenspan said.
• I must say, I never expected to see the day where I would be talking about anything other than reducing the debt, I'm running into the tyranny of zero, which is where you can't reduce (the debt) any more
• Protectionism will do little to create jobs and if foreigners retaliate, we will surely lose jobs.
• The true measure of a career is to be able to be content, even proud, that you succeeded through your own endeavors without leaving a trail of casualties in your wake.
• It has been my experience that competency in mathematics, both in numerical manipulations and in understanding its conceptual foundations, enhances a person's ability to handle the more ambiguous and qualitative relationships that dominate our day-to-day financial decision-making.
• It is decidedly not true that "nice guys finish last," as that highly original American baseball philosopher, Leo Durocher, was alleged to have said.
• In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.
• We need, in effect, to make the phantom 'lock-boxes' around the trust fund real.
• If you're going to move to private accounts, which I approve of, I think you have to do it in a cautious, gradual way.
• The more flexible an economy, the greater its ability to self-correct in response to inevitable, often unanticipated, disturbances and thus to contain the size and consequences of cyclical imbalances.
• We have a moral obligation to use our prosperity at this moment, especially to uplift communities in poverty.
• History has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.
• If you're going to move to private accounts, which I approve of, I think you have to do it in a cautious, gradual way.
• We need, in effect, to make the phantom 'lock-boxes' around the trust fund real.
• In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.
• It is decidedly not true that "nice guys finish last," as that highly original American baseball philosopher, Leo Durocher, was alleged to have said.
• There is a palpable unease that businesses and jobs are being drained from the United States, with potentially adverse long-run implications for unemployment and the standard of living of the average American.
• How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values....
• Emperors and armies come and go, ... but unless they leave new ideas in their wake, they are of passing historic consequence. The short list of intellectuals who have materially advanced the betterment of civilization unquestionably includes Adam Smith.
• Look at it! Look at it, damn you! This is the result of your consistent, persistent, grinding, impoverishing inflation, you despicable loathsome morons!
• Keep 'em low, Al.
• could prove destabilizing to our financial system as a whole and in the end could seriously diminish the availability of home mortgage funds.
• This schedule change avoids a meeting that spans the terms of two chairmen.
• There's potential for individual disaster there.
• difficult to suppress growing market exuberance when the economic environment is perceived as more stable.
• How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values? ... We should not underestimate or become complacent about the complexity of the interactions of asset markets and the economy.