Economy

I will define the economy as the set of arrangements and activities by which a society satisfies its needs.
~ William ("W.") Brian Arthur, The Nature of Technology: What it Is and How it Evolves (2009). Chapter 10. The Economy Evolving as Its Technologies Evolve

Confound fractions! in these days one can afford to be liberal.
~ William Edmondstoune (W.E.) Aytoun, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (October 1845). How We Got Up The Glenmutchkin Railway, And How We Got Out Of It

If all the world's economists were laid end to end, we wouldn't reach a conclusion.
~ William J. Baumol

An economic system like ours depends on trust -- trust between consumer and vendor, auditor and employee, shareholder and executive. When that trust is broken, the economic system itself is damaged. Ethical behavior, in short, is not a pleasing addition to the bottom line; it is, rather, an intrinsic part of the bottom line.
~ William John Bennett, in The Chicago Tribune (28 July 2002). Capitalism and a moral education

The stock broker services his clients in the same way that Bonnie and Clyde serviced banks.
~ William J. Bernstein, The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons For Building A Winning Portfolio (2002).

The entire world economy rests on the consumer; if he ever stops spending money he doesn't have on things he doesn't need -- we're done for.
~ Bill Bonner

The best test of the economic health of a nation is the holdings of the average citizen.
~ Willis H. (W.H.) Carothers, in Democracy in Reconstruction (1919). XI. Savings and Thrift

There should be no economy in education.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), from The Works of William E. Channing, D.D., Volume I (1841). Remarks on Education (originally in the Christian Examiner; November 1833)

Never has a government climbed off the backs of the upper-class so fast to tap-dance on the backs of the poor. Never in recent history have we had so blatant a plutocracy: a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., from Credo (2003). Social Justice and Economic Rights

The mortgage market changes virtually from day to day, so you can wait a few weeks and, if you haven't committed suicide in the meantime, try again, even with the same lenders.
~ William G. Connolly, The New York Times Guide to Buying or Building a Home (1979).

A system must be managed. It will not manage itself.
~ W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics For Industry, Government & Education (1993).

The moral is that it is necessary to innovate, to predict needs of the customer, give him more. He that innovates and is lucky will take the market.
~ W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics For Industry, Government & Education (1993).

Greed is essential to the proper functioning of our economic system. Of course, we don't call it greed in polite company. On the supply side we call it hustle or ambition or push and shove. On the demand side, we call it consumerism or, playfully, "shop till you drop." But greed by any name is not something we want to eliminate. It is, after all and for better and worse, the fuel which powers the free enterprise engine.
~ William A. Dimma, in Time Magazine (1989).

Although the monetary relief secured in the settlement is substantial, unfortunately the losses that investors suffered in the aftermath of the market bubble that burst far exceeds the ability to compensate them fully. ... They can never fully be repaid. Their loss was more than monetary. It was a loss of confidence and a loss of the hopes and dreams they had built over a lifetime. And although the monetary relief obtained in the settlement is record-breaking, the structural reforms required by the settlement are, in my view more significant and far-reaching.
~ William ("Bill") H. Donaldson, Speech at SEC Press Conference Regarding Global Settlement, Washington DC (28 April 2003).

We will hold accountable all those who have violated the public trust. We will demand responsible corporate governance throughout the business and financial world. We will strengthen our market structure, making the markets more efficient, more transparent, and friendlier to all investors, particularly small investors.
~ William ("Bill") H. Donaldson, The White House, Office of the Press Secretary (18 February 2003). New SEC Chairman Sworn-In

[E]conomists did something even better than predict the crisis. We correctly predicted that we would not be able to predict it.
~ William Easterly, Aid Watch blog (7 August 2009). The Idiot's Guide to Answering Queen Elizabeth

I am optimistic that economic and social progress will be made, with the help of technology too; and that economic growth will spread to more and more countries. I therefore think the basic lesson will be the same as in the twentieth century: that open, liberalized capitalism is the best system.
~ Bill Emmott, Forbes.com (11 February 2003). CEO Network Chat With Bill Emmott

A successful trader studies human nature and does the opposite of what the general public does.
~ William Delbert (W.D.) Gann, How to Make Profits Trading in Commodities (1942).

I discovered that the Law of Vibration enabled me to accurately determine the exact points to which Stocks or Commodities should rise and fall within a given time. The working out of this Law determines the cause and predicts the effect long before the Street is aware.
~ William Delbert (W.D.) Gann, in The Ticker and Investment Digest, Vol. 5 (December 1909).

One of the economic units of this society is being in the know or being able to convince people that you are in the know.
~ William Gibson, BBC News (12 October 2010). William Gibson says the future is right here, right now

We're an information economy. They teach you that in school. What they don't tell you is that it's impossible to move, to live, to operate at any level without leaving traces, bits, seemingly meaningless fragments of personal information. Fragments that can be retrieved, amplified ...
~ William Gibson, from Burning Chrome (1986). Johnny Mnemonic (originally published in Omni Magazine, 1981)

The present struggle seems less about abolishing big government than about who gets to use it.
~ William Greider, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism (1997). Sixteen. Schraube Nach Unten

The social question -- how does a society sustain equable relations among its own people? -- has been brushed aside by the economic sphere. Social cohesion and consent, even the minimal standards of human decency, are irrelevent to free markets.
~ William Greider, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism (1997). Fifteen. "These Dark Satanic Mills"

Markets invariably move to undervalued and overvalued extremes because human nature falls victim to greed and/or fear.
~ William H. Gross, Everything You've Heard About Investing is Wrong!: How to Profit in the Coming Post-Bull Markets (1997).

Now I know that so long as we have social inequality we shall have snobs; we shall have men who bully and truckle, and women who snub and crawl. I know that it is futile to, spurn them, or lash them for trying to get on in the world, and that the world is what it must be from the selfish motives which underlie our economic life.
~ William Dean Howells, My Literary Passions (1895). Chapter XX: Thackeray

The force of competition is not a destructive force. It is exactly the opposite. It is the sole principle of coordination in a complex world.
~ William Harold Hutt, in the Journal of Labor Research, Volume VI, Number 3 (Summer 1985). An Interview with W.H. Hutt

The great challenge of the twentieth century, after the experience of state socialism and of unfettered free markets, is to create a new financial architecture in which private decisions produce a less degenerate capitalism.
~ Will Hutton, The State We're In (1995).

A true theory of economy can only be attained by going back to the great springs of human action -- the feelings of pleasure and pain.
~ William (W.) Stanley Jevons, in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (June 1866). Account of a General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy

It is clear that Economics, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science.
~ William (W.) Stanley Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy (1871). Chapter I. Introduction

[T]he object of economics is to maximize happiness by purchasing pleasure, as it were, at the lowest cost of pain.
~ William (W.) Stanley Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy (1871). Chapter I. Introduction

[V]alue depends entirely upon utility.
~ William (W.) Stanley Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy (1871). Chapter I. Introduction

Communism has failed, but capitalism has not succeeded.
~ William Keegan, The Spectre Of Capitalism (1992). Preface

Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognised as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.
~ William Lyon Mackenzie King, Radio Address (2 August 1935)

Nations seldom realise till too late how prominent a place a sound system of finance holds among the vital elements of national stability and well-being; how few political changes are worth purchasing by its sacrifice; how widely and seriously human happiness is affected by the downfall or the perturbation of national credit, or by excessive, injudicious, and unjust taxation.
~ William Edward Hartpole (E.H.) Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Volume V (1887). Chapter XVIII

The only long-term, high-confidence strategy for the world not to be overwhelmed by terrorism is for economic development to go so well that terrorists have no place to incubate or hide.
~ William W. Lewis, The Power of Productivity: Wealth, Poverty, and the Threat to Global Stability (2004). Chapter Twelve. So What?

The economy is incredibly good. It's too good. It's happy, excited. The GNP is up, the Dow Jones is up. Inflation is at its lowest level since 1963. I went to the ATM today, and I inserted my card -- it moaned.
~ Bill Maher

[S]ettle the economic question and you settle all other questions. It is the Aaron's rod which swallows up the rest.
~ William Morris, in William Morris to Whistler; Papers And Addresses On Art And Craft And The Commonweal (1911). William Morris and His Work

Historians remind us that a new economy -- a new industrial revolution -- is born every few years. Railroads, electricity, telephony, radio, antibiotics, highway networks, air travel, and television were important historical examples. Our IT revolution is the latest and a most dramatic industrial revolution.
~ William D. Nordhaus, Presentation at the First Plenary Session of the White House Conference on the New Economy (5 April 2000). What is the Shape of the New Economy?

The central law of the so-­called science of Economics is selfishness. A whole science is built on one foundation -- that every man in the world will get all he can for himself. The subject is naturally studied not from an ethical, but from a scientific standpoint. Life is a race.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps, from Essays on Things (1930).

Economy is a great virtue, but it should not be extreme.
~ William Pittenger, Toasts (1895). Illustrative and Humorous Anecdotes, 25. Extreme Economy

The contempt and pride which accompany wealth and power, and the envy and jealousy they excite amongst other nations, are continual causes of change, and form the great basis of the revolutions amongst the human race.
~ William Playfair, An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations (1805).

Every dollar governors are forced to cut out of our budgets is a dollar that's not going into the economy. ... Every job that must be cut is another statistic in already escalating unemployment figures. ... Every person who loses the support and services on which they rely for their livelihood and security leaves us poorer as a people and as a nation.
~ Bill Richardson, The Associated Press (12 January 2003). Richardson Gives Democratic Response to Bush Radio Address

If there was ever a discipline that should be founded on reason, and on reason alone, it is economics. Yet, like politics, economics has now been so theorized and theologized, so supercharged with tendentiousness and unreason, as to almost be completely shrouded from the prying eye of objectivity.
~ Wilmot Robertson, The Dispossessed Majority (1972).

[A]n economist is a man that can tell you anything about -- well, he will tell you what can happen under any given condition -- and his guess is liable to be as good as anybody else's, too
~ Will Rogers, (26 May 1935)

[L]et Wall Street have a nightmare and the whole country has to help them get back in bed again.
~ Will Rogers, in The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949).

Economic laws will not work to our benefit unless they work within a society that admits of the human virtues which issue in true service (not just "service to the customer"), devotion, charity, hospitality, and in the sacrifices which genuine communities demand.
~ Wilhelm Röpke, in Modern Age (Summer 1959). The Economic Necessity of Freedom

I champion an economic order ruled by free prices and markets ... the only economic order compatible with human freedom.
~ Wilhelm Röpke, A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market (1960).

Market economy is not in itself a sufficient basis of society.
~ Wilhelm Röpke, in Modern Age (Summer 1959). The Economic Necessity of Freedom

Whereas in Russia the coercive machinery is represented by the G.P.U. with its rifles and dungeons, in capitalism it is represented by the banking system with its cheques and overdrafts.
~ Wilhelm Röpke, Crises and Cycles (1936). Chapter IV. The Causes of Crises and Cycles

The regard one shows economy, is like that we show an old aunt who is to leave us something at last.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Of Men and Manners

I continue to believe that the American people have a love-hate relationship with inflation. They hate inflation but love everything that causes it.
~ William E. Simon, in Hillsdale College Imprimis (July 1979). Inflation: Made and Manufactured in Washington, D.C.

Productivity and the growth of productivity must be the first economic consideration at all times, not the last. That is the source of technological innovation, jobs, and wealth.
~ William E. Simon, A Time for Truth (1978).

Oil prices have fallen lately. We include this news for the benefit of gas stations, which otherwise wouldn't learn of it for six months.
~ William D. (Bill) Tammeus, in Toronto's National Newspaper (1991).

[P]rice controls by government give you shortages. California tried it. They controlled prices at the retail level, they controlled prices at the wholesale level, there were price caps in California which they ignored themselves, because they couldn't buy energy at those prices. They've got shortages, they've got higher prices, and why? Because they didn't deregulate, they only regulated.
~ Billy Tauzin, CNN TV "Crossfire" (17 May 2001)

We are all the children of John Q. Public, and our interests as members of the consuming public are after all our chief end and objective as citizens of our democracy.
~ William Allen White, Speech before the International Management Congress, Washington DC (20 September 1937).

God bless pawnbrokers! They are quiet men.
~ Marguerite Wilkinson

In its broadest ecological context, economic development is the development of more intensive ways of exploiting the natural environment.
~ Richard G. Wilkinson, Poverty and Progress: An Ecological Perspective on Economic Development (1973).

Economic instability is equaled only by the instability of economists.
~ John H. Williams, in the American Economic Review (May 1948). An Appraisal of Keynesian Economics

[W]hile a large part of our economic activity is obviously devoted to supplying known needs, a considerable and increasing part of it goes to ensuring that we consume what industry finds it convenient to produce. As this tendency strengthens, it becomes increasingly obvious that society is not controlling its economic life, but is in part being controlled by it.
~ Raymond Henry Williams, The Long Revolution (1961). Britain in the 1960s

[I]f we wish to be compassionate with our fellow man, we must learn to engage in dispassionate analysis. In other words, thinking with our hearts, rather than our brains, is a surefire method to hurt those whom we wish to help.
~ Walter E. Williams, in Jewish World Review (27 June 2007). Straight Thinking 101

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen.
~ Earl Wilson

[D]estroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.
~ Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson, The Ants (1990).