Economics

Even more seriously, cryptocurrency can interfere with governments' ability to fight recessions with monetary policy. When people are using privately created money (cryptocurrency) rather than ordinary money, the money supply is beyond the government's control, and monetary policy can no longer be conducted. That's a bad thing.

Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics; Mechanism Design Theory Pioneer

There are two key features of blockchain that make it, potentially, a very useful technology from an economic perspective. First, the data about transactions are posted on many public sites thus giving these data an immutability that makes disputes easy to avoid. Second, although the data are in some sense public, they can be encrypted so that a particular party learns only those aspects that she needs to know.

Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics; Mechanism Design Theory Pioneer

We have to leave behind the myth that our economies are actually fit for the present that we understand, and the vision of the future we want to create. We need to redesign economics for our times.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and the market doesn't even things out. It takes massive state intervention through public services, health services, social housing and income redistribution to even begin to equalise or reduce inequality.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

We are, in the early days of the 21st century, talking about the death of the living world as an environmental externality. That alone should be an alarm-bell that our framework doesn't serve our time.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

GDP only catches a slice of the value that we value. It captures what goes on in the market, the financial value of goods and services sold in an economy over a year. We need to get away from the narrow, monetary, measure of GDP which asserts that economic value is the only thing we care about.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

It's really complicated to work-out how much of our wealth came from empire, it's like trying to take the egg out of a baked cake.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

The neo-liberal capitalist mindset has been a huge contributor to loneliness. Since the 1980s, a new form of economics came to the fore which enshrined the pursuit of self-interest over the pursuit of collective good. That generated the mindset we see today- me first, dog-eat-dog, greed is good.

Economist & Author on Globalization, Corporate Power & Digital Society

Our system has never defined what it means to be 'good' – what is the ideal human being in capitalism? Is it Jeff Bezos? Is it Steve Jobs? They thrived, they profited, are they 'moral'? Even though they exploit the labour of millions of people?

Turkish journalist, author, and political commentator known for critical writings on democracy

I fully believe the future of financial infrastructure will be built on blockchain. We handle around US$5 billion per day for all transactions, around 3x more than PayPal. This is only the beginning.

Founder of TRON blockchain platform & cryptocurrency entrepreneur

We can only solve our ecological problems by linking ecology and economy. If we can create the right economic environment, change will happen. If it's more profitable to be efficient than wasteful, we will be efficient.

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse

We have to understand that the world has been inefficient for decades, producing too much, using too much and throwing away too much. We waste 75% of the energy we produce, half the food we produce and half of our natural resources.

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse

Money gets inside us; it creates our perceptions and changes the way we operate. It changes the people among whom we are, and who we are. When we're not in touch with that reality, it can change us in heinous ways.

Documentary filmmaker and philanthropist; great-granddaughter of Walt Disney

You must tell yourself the truth about money if you're going to give it away well. If you can't live well with $999 million, there's something clearly wrong with you.

Documentary filmmaker and philanthropist; great-granddaughter of Walt Disney

The most common misunderstanding is that the Arctic is just a frozen wilderness with a lot of ice and glaciers and a few polar bears roaming. On the contrary the Arctic is a very diverse part of our planet with multiple resources and economic opportunities, the home for over four million people of different nationalities and diverse ethnic origin.

Former President of Iceland (1996-2016)

You are all so smart… and this was so bad… how could your discipline have not seen it coming? Implicit in the Queen's question was the assertion that economists don't get out enough and talk to people in the wider economy.

Dean of Columbia Business School & Economic Policy Advisor