Every nation is dependent on every other to shore up the system, and there are few (if any) instances where a country is fully shielded against the default of another.
— Unknown“I flew home with this profound sense of the simultaneity of human suffering; I've never been able to get over that sense that even as I'm talking to you right now, there are people who are living unbearable lives.. I just came home and tried to think of as many ways that comedy could contribute – stage shows, television shows, books, merchandise, everything that we could do, like running a business.”— Richard Curtis
British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies
The quote archive
Wisdom in fragments
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
We must act now, before we reach economic checkmate.
— UnknownThe last quarter century of globalisation has utterly transformed how our markets and nations do business. With that in mind, we have to appreciate that our economies not only provide profound benefits and wealth-creation opportunities, but also hold very real (and untended) existential threats to the livelihoods of billions of citizens.
— UnknownWe can see, therefore, that sovereign debt has a systemically important role in the stability of the global economy, the economies of individual states and even the very peace of a country. To be able to then treat this as a market instrument- while appropriate at a time when capital flows were gentile and considered- is clearly not when we can write $2 trillion or more from an entire economy in a matter of seconds.
— UnknownStock prices suffer a one-two punch. Rising raw material prices tends to compress margins or earnings, and rising interest rates tend to compress p/e ratios, as earnings yield must compete with interest rates.
— John BrynjolfssonUnknown.
Like everyone, investors get hurt by the implicit loss of purchasing power of each dollar inflation implies. However that is only the tip of the iceberg, as this loss is likely to be compounded by the tendency for traditional investments to suffer additional erosion.
— John BrynjolfssonUnknown.
Today away from monetary policy, global factors drive inflation, and for tangible goods emerging market drivers are key. We note commodity consumption per unit of GDP explodes as per capita income rises from $3000/yr into the $5000 to $15000 bracket.
— John BrynjolfssonUnknown.
Firstly, inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomena. Secondly, the Phillips curve is dead and buried. US employment, and domestic measures of capacity utilization didn't even work 40 years ago! We stuck a stake in the heart of such measures about 15 years ago.
— John BrynjolfssonUnknown.
The absolute focus must be on reducing inequality. This means creating strategies which provide economic opportunity - investing in industries that provide employment rather than profit, investing in education, and providing a fairer deal for those who form the labour force.
— Filipe CampanteUnknown.
Increasingly heavy-handed purges of crime will simply move perpetrators into different industries, increase the severity of crime, or create extremist groups. There is very little more dangerous in the world than individuals with nothing to lose.
— Igor BarenboimUnknown.
Crime, for those living in poverty, can become a business. Much like any other capitalist enterprise, their business further exacerbates inequality in society. The poor feel aggrieved by inequality - they exist in a world where they are disproportionately unrewarded for their input into the economy.
— Filipe CampanteUnknown.
Crime itself can increase inequality. A doubling in crime increases the Gini coefficient by 3% to 4%. When crime increases twofold the share of the rich tercile drops by 1.3%, and the share of the population in the poorest tercile increases.
— Igor BarenboimUnknown.
You have to understand, for instance, that in my lifetime until I was fifty or so- I had not witnessed any period without inflation of twenty or thirty percent, and sometimes one hundred percent.
— Celso AmorimBrazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency
First and foremost was the consolidation of democracy. Second was the stabilisation of the economy. Thirdly- and probably most importantly- was the ability of Brazil to deal with a problem we inherited from colonial times- inequality.
— Celso AmorimBrazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency
In the case of Brazil, one of the most important things is the huge ethnic and cultural mixture which makes us a country with dynamism, vibrancy, and the ability to understand the psychology of other nations.
— Celso AmorimBrazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency
One thing that really helped us was NOT following the IMF prescription, and hence I think the fact that we insisted on having growth (alongside stability) was something that made for a big change in Brazil.
— Celso AmorimBrazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency