“When you have high levels of indebtedness and big deficits… if you simply impose fiscal austerity, you may not be able to achieve your targets because GDP will begin to contract and that will place much greater pressures on the fiscal side.”
— Larry Hatheway

The quote archive

Wisdom in fragments

A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.

Let's not forget that currencies today are based on good will not gold reserves.

— Kate Craig-Wood

Unlike real money, they are decentralised and transactions are free; no bank in the middle taking their slice and nothing central to fail.

— Kate Craig-Wood

Crypto-currency is a means by which people can exchange property in a secure way without the use of a central institution like a bank or the Federal Reserve.

— Prof. Campbell Harvey

Duke Finance Professor & Co-Developer of Campbell Harvey Market Timing Model

The complexity of the topic combined with significant political and social blindness towards it, has led to disability becoming one of the most significant un-addressed issues of modern time.

— Javed Abidi

Disability Rights Activist & Founder of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People

Disability – rather than being something looked upon as a 'condition', is really a phenomenon that occurs at a complex intersection between our humanity, policy, society, culture and the environment.

— Javed Abidi

Disability Rights Activist & Founder of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People

Human beings can become impaired through physical, mental or sensory limitations; but that does not become a disability until that impairment stops them from participating in community life.

— Javed Abidi

Disability Rights Activist & Founder of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People

It is the difference between an investor asking, 'so, what's your product…' and 'so, what's your idea, and what steps can we take to turn that into a product.'

— William R. Kerr

Viewing entrepreneurship as experimentation allows individuals and societies to evaluate businesses and technologies in domains with greater uncertainty than otherwise possible, unlocking deep growth opportunities.

— William R. Kerr

Entrepreneurs and investors must make discrete choices, often with quite incomplete information and uncertainty about the future, about which ideas to progress and which to shut down. Financiers rather than markets dictate which projects are realized, as they choose which experiments to attempt, how to interpret the results, and whether to continue or abandon the investment.

— William R. Kerr

Loose monetary policy today may be setting up the conditions for a jobless recovery in the future. Even today, the outlines of such a situation are already visible. The knowledge that weaker demand for labour lies ahead affects consumption demand directly and indirectly, as it puts further downward pressure on wages.

— Joseph E. Stiglitz

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist & Critic of Globalization

There are many in Europe and America who believe that our current troubles arise from excess debt, at both the household and national level. Those focusing on debt at the national level have warned that debt financed spending will in the long run be counterproductive.

— Joseph E. Stiglitz

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist & Critic of Globalization

While the crisis made the problems of the euro-structure clear, they were present long before. Indeed, the euro helped create the crisis: for the markets seemed to have vastly overestimated the extent to which the single market/single currency had reduced risk (another example of market irrationality), leading to excessive lending to the afflicted countries.

— Joseph E. Stiglitz

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist & Critic of Globalization

The representative agent model (and its descendants) imposed a straightjacket that made it difficult to think clearly about what was going on [in the economy]… To me [Stiglitz], the strangest aspect of modern macroeconomics was that the central banks were using a model in which banks and financial markets played no role.

— Joseph E. Stiglitz

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist & Critic of Globalization

The most successful organisations I've met over the years have a very-strong senses of culture (even from start-up stage). This isn't the soft process of drafting a mission statement for your website, but genuinely understanding the type of personality you want your company to have.

— Not specified

When you've founded a business, the last thing you want to do is let-go. It's part of the psychology of most founders- but let-go you must, and if you handle it right, it can work extremely well.

— Not specified

Delegation is about giving the right people in your organisation the ability to excel at what they do, and in turn- to help you (as a company leader) to achieve the objectives of your enterprise.

— Not specified