-
Jim Slater (1929–), British business executive and author
Source: Quoted in Treasury of Investment Wisdom (Bernice Cohen, 1999) -
Joan Robinson (1903–1983), British economist
Source: “The Short Period,” Economic Heresies (1970) -
"In a market like this, every story is a positive one. Any news is good news. It's pretty much taken for granted now that the market is going to go up."Anonymous
the market began to decline that day, plummeted nearly 1000 points in October, and did not regain its August peak for nearly two years
Source: The Wall Street Journal 26 August 1987 -
"In the next economic downturn there will be an outbreak of bitterness and contempt for the supercorporate chieftains who pay themselves millions. In every major economic downturn in US history the villains have been the heroes during the preceding boom."Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005), US management consultant and academic
Source: Quoted in “Seeing Things As They Really Are,” Forbes (Robert Lenzner and Stephen S. Johnson, 1987) -
"Property and stock market crashes … litter the history of capitalism. But at the same time there is no evidence that anyone has ever been successful in preventing such a crash."Lester Thurow (1938–), US economist, management theorist, and writer
Source: “Barking up the Wrong Tree,” www.lthurow.com (November 2, 1999) -
"Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There's a problem, though: they are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands."Warren Buffett (1930–), US entrepreneur and financier
Source: Letter to shareholders (2000) -
Alan Greenspan (1926–), US economist and former chairman of US Federal Reserve Board
Source: Wall Street Journal (1997) -
"History records no case where the bubble gracefully deflated, accompanied by a slight hiss of escaping optimism. The speculative episode always ends with a loud explosion."Andreas Whittam Smith (1937–), British journalist
Source: Independent (London) (January 28, 2008) -
Sir John Templeton (1912–), British-Bahamian investor and philanthropist
Source: Quoted in Short-term Trading in the New Stock Market (Toni Turner, 2005) -
Sir John Templeton (1912–), British-Bahamian investor and philanthropist
Source: Quoted in The Four Pillars of Investing (William J. Bernstein, 2002) -
"A very powerful and durable rally is in the works. But it may need another couple of days to lift off. Hold the fort and keep the faith!"Richard Band, US financial writer
Source: Profitable Investing Letter (March 27, 2008) -
"Last year this was a financial crisis that we thought with a bit of luck would be over by Christmas … "Charles Bean (1953–), British economist and deputy governor of the Bank of England
Source: Quoted in the Guardian (London) (August 26, 2008) -
Ben Bernanke (1953–), US Chairman of the US Federal Reserve
Source: Remark (September 2000) -
Ben Bernanke (1953–), US Chairman of the US Federal Reserve
Source: 'Anatomy of a Meltdown', New Yorker (December 1, 2008) -
Morgan Downey, US executive with Lasalle Global Fund Services
Source: Remark (2007) -
"What, pray, is all the fuss about? … If this is the worst crisis since the Great Depression then we must have all been living pretty cushy, gilded lives since the 1930s. If this is all it takes to destroy capitalism … then it is a wonder why the Soviet Union failed to do so during its seven decades of existence. For the past year has actually not been very bad at all—unless you are a banker, a bank shareholder or Gordon Brown; and few will shed tears for any of those."Bill Emmott (1956–), British economics journalist
Source: Guardian (London) (August 12, 2008) -
"I think this is a case where Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are fundamentally sound. They're not in danger of going under … I think they are in good shape going forward."Barney Frank (1940–), US chairman of the House Financial Services Committee
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken into government "conservatorship" in September 2008.
Source: Remark (July 14, 2008) -
"The final chapter of Greenspan's legacy has not been written. Maybe it will work out fine, but maybe not."Paul Kasriel, US financial analyst
On Alan Greenspan's retirement as chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
Source: Quoted on Bloomberg.com (January 26, 2006) -
"The recession debate is over. It's not gonna happen … The Bush boom is alive and well. It's finishing up its sixth splendid year with many more years to come."Lawrence Kudlow (1947–), US economist and right-wing commentator
Source: Kudlow's Money Politics blog (December 5, 2007) -
"Real estate is still a great investment opportunity for households. Price appreciation will continue. It may not be at 20%. It may … even go down to 5%."David Lereah, US economist and former spokesman for the National Association of Realtors
Between 2006 and 2008 US house prices fell faster than they fell during the Great Depression.
Source: Interviewed on SmartMoney.com (August 12, 2005) -
Robert Lucas, Jr (1937–), US economist
Source: Address to the American Economic Association (2003) -
"Anyone who says we're in a recession, or heading into one—especially the worst one since the Great Depressionms—is making up his own private definition of "recession.""Donald Luskin (1954–), US investment guru
This was the day before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, triggering a stock-market crash.
Source: Washington Post (September 14, 2008) -
Robert Shiller (1946–), US economist and author
Between 2006 and 2008 US house prices fell faster than they fell during the Great Depression.
Source: Remark (August 2005) -
"It's quite possible that at some point we may get an odd quarter or two of negative growth, but recession is not the central projection at all."Mervyn King (1948–), British governor of the Bank of England
Source: Speech (May 2008) -
"The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War."Alan Greenspan (1926–), US economist and former chairman of US Federal Reserve Board
Source: Financial Times (London) (March 16, 2008) -
"We are in the midst of a once-in-a-century credit tsunami. Central banks and governments are being required to take unprecedented measures. Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity are in a state of shocked disbelief."Alan Greenspan (1926–), US economist and former chairman of US Federal Reserve Board
Source: Speaking before the House Committee on Oversight (October 23, 2008) -
"At present it is a bit like being in a country where a civil war is taking place. Away from the fighting, everything seems normal enough … Open-air cafes are full, shops are busy and the best restaurants have no spare tables. But in the combat zones, perhaps not very far away, life is hellish."Andreas Whittam Smith (1937–), British journalist
On the deepening recession.
Source: Independent (London) (December 5, 2008) -
George W. Bush (1946–), US former president
Source: Speech (March 14, 2008) -
"We can have confidence in the long-term foundation of our economy … I think the system basically is sound. I truly do."George W. Bush (1946–), US former president
The US financial system plunged into crisis in September.
Source: Speech (July 15, 2008) -
George W. Bush (1946–), US former president
Source: Speech (September 24, 2008) -
George W. Bush (1946–), US former president
Referring to the entire US financial system at an emergency cabinet meeting.
Source: Quoted in the New York Times (September 25, 2008) -
George W. Bush (1946–), US former president
Referring to frozen credit markets.
Source: Speech given in Alexandria, Louisiana (October 20, 2008) -
"Global capital markets pose the same kinds of problems that jet planes do. They are faster, more comfortable, and they get you where you are going better. But the crashes are much more spectacular."Lawrence H. Summers (1954–), US president of Harvard University, economist, and politician
Source: Interviewed in Time (June 26, 2005) -
"Blaming speculators as a response to financial crisis goes back at least to the Greeks. It's almost always the wrong response."Lawrence H. Summers (1954–), US president of Harvard University, economist, and politician
On the financial crisis in South-East Asia.
Source: Remark (1997) -
"Consumer spending is now plunging at serious-recession rate … even if the rescue now in train succeeds in unfreezing credit markets, the real economy has immense downward momentum. In addition to financial rescues, we need major stimulus programs."Paul R. Krugman (1953–), US economist
Source: New York Times blog post entitled 'Train Headed Downhill' (October 15, 2008) -
"Unsustainable situations usually go on longer than most economists think possible. But they always end, and when they do, it's often painful."Paul R. Krugman (1953–), US economist
Source: Address given in Bangkok (September 2005) -
"When depression economics prevails, the usual rules of economic policy no longer apply: virtue becomes vice, caution is risky and prudence is folly."Paul R. Krugman (1953–), US economist
Source: New York Times (November 14, 2008) -
Paul R. Krugman (1953–), US economist
Source: Interview with Bill Maher on HBO television (September 19, 2008) -
John McCain (1936–), US senator
On the US Treasury secretary's Wall Street bailout plan.
Source: Quoted in The Times (London) (September 25, 2008) -
John McCain (1936–), US senator
Source: Interviewed on Bloomberg Television (April 17, 2008) -
Elizabeth II (1926–), British Queen of the United Kingdom
On the financial crash of 2008.
Source: During a visit to the London School of Economics (October 2008) -
Ed Balls (1967–), British politician
Source: Speech given to a Labour conference in Yorkshire (February 9, 2009) -
"What does a Great Depression for the relatively wealthy look like? If you spend lots of your budget on "luxuries"—especially durables—it is easy to postpone their consumption. This might cause GDP to fall more rapidly than if people were poorer."Tyler Cowen (1962–), US economist, journalist, and blogger
Source: Marginal Revolution blog (February 27, 2009) -
"We were on our own for years and we went too far, too fast, in too little time … We're just like kids whose parents went away for the weekend and we trashed the whole house."Hallgrimur Helgason (1959–), Icelandic novelist and journalist
On the implosion of Iceland's financial services industry.
Source: Quoted in Guardian (London) (January 26, 2009) -
Angela Merkel (1954–), German Chancellor
Source: Speech made in Frankfurt (January 2009) -
"This recession is not a failure of market economics. It is a reassertion of market economics after a decade in which we paid ourselves more than we were producing, and funded it precariously and temporarily by complicated credit instruments that it took a while for the market to rumble … The collapse of confidence is not irrational; it's the correction to a long run of irrational confidence."Matthew Parris (1949–), British journalist
Source: The Times (London) (January 24, 2009) -
"An army of experts assured us on a daily basis that this boom couldn’t possibly crash like previous booms because this boom was still going on whereas all previous booms had ended."Mark Steel (1950–), British comedian and author
Source: Independent (London) (February 11, 2009) -
"I looked at the screens. I was staring into the abyss. The end. I felt this shooting pain in my head. I don’t get headaches … I thought I was having an aneurysm."Danny Moses, US financial trader
On the stock-market crash of September 18, 2008.
Source: Quoted in Condé Nast Portfolio (New York) (December 2008) -
"The government increasingly resembles somebody who is trying to give the kiss of life to a corpse."Vince Cable (1943–), British Liberal Democrat politician
On the British government's bank bailout plan.
Source: Independent (London) (January 20, 2009) -
"Currently the prime minister is the equivalent of a doctor who is asked to save the same person's life several times. Originally the relatives are grateful but then start to wonder why his services are required so often."Steve Richards (1960–), British journalist
On Gordon Brown's bank bailout plans.
Source: Independent (London) (January 20, 2009) -
"The banking crisis may not have been caused by the internet but it was certainly fuelled by the way connectivity and speed created a market in which everybody was gripped by the hysteria of the herd."Bryan Appleyard (1951–), British journalist
Source: Sunday Times (London) (May 17, 2009) -
Dominic Lawson (1956–), British journalist
Source: Independent (London) (April 7, 2009) -
"The uncomfortable truth is that we all enjoyed the party far too much to query where all the booze was coming from. Now we seem intent on lynching the barman for letting us get drunk and attacking the Government for letting us get a hangover."Sean O’Grady, British economics journalist
Referring to the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
Source: Independent (London) (April 2, 2009) -
"If the financial system has a defect, it is that it reflects and magnifies what we human beings are like … money amplifies our tendency to overreact, to swing from exuberance when things are going well to deep depression when they go wrong. Booms and busts are products, at root, of our emotional volatility."Niall Ferguson (1964–), British historian
Source: The Ascent of Money (2008) -
"The world economy [is] more stable than for a generation … Our hugely sophisticated financial markets match funds with ideas better than ever before."David Cameron (1966–), British Conservative politician
The first signs of the global financial crisis were already becoming apparent.
Source: Speech given at the London School of Economics (September 2007) -
William Hague (1961–), British Conservative politician
Source: Speech quoted in Independent (London) (April 6, 2009) -
"Give a small number of people the power to enrich themselves beyond everyone's wildest dreams, a philosophical rationale to explain all the damage they're causing, and they will not stop until they've run the world economy off a cliff."Philipp Meyer (1975–), US novelist and former financial trader
Source: Independent (London) (April 27, 2009) -
"You know, in every movie I've seen about the end of the world, civilization collapses because of something wicked cool happening—an asteroid hits, nuclear war, a supervirus, an ape revolution, whatever. If civilization collapses over credit default swaps I am going to be pissed."Dan McEnroe, US writer and blogger
Referring to the role of complex derivatives in the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
Source: A Blog Named Sue (March 5, 2009) -
"Harvey & Thompson, the UK's largest listed pawnbrokers, yesterday announced good trading and a record number of store openings."Anonymous
Source: Independent (London) (January 13, 2009) -
"My nightmare scenario is that the government saves Citibank once again, as well as the other banks, and business resumes as usual. Then, the next time the system breaks, it breaks much, much bigger."Nassim Nicholas Taleb (1960–), Lebanese-born US academic and writer, former derivatives trader
Source: Interviewed in Washington Post (March 15, 2009) -
"Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year."Barack Obama (1961–), US president
Source: Inaugural address (January 21, 2009) -
Steve Forbes (1947–), US publishing executive
On Forbes magazine's revelation that the number of billionaires in the world had fallen by 30% over the previous 12 months.
Source: Quoted in the Sunday Independent (Dublin) (March 15, 2009) -
"I would urge you to sell any sterling you might have. It's finished. I hate to say it, but I would not put any money in the UK."Jim Rogers (1935–), US banker and management consultant
Source: Speaking on Bloomberg television (January 20, 2009) -
"Over the ten years that I have had the privilege of addressing you as Chancellor, I have been able year by year to record how the City of London has risen by your efforts, ingenuity and creativity to become a new world leader … So I congratulate you, Lord Mayor and the City of London, on these remarkable achievements, an era that history will record as the beginning of a new golden age for the City of London."Gordon Brown (1951–), British prime minister
The first signs of the global financial crisis became apparent the following month.
Source: Speech given at the Mansion House, City of London, while Chancellor of the Exchequer (June 20, 2007) -
"We will have more crises and none of them will look like this because no two crises have anything in common except human nature."Alan Greenspan (1926–), US economist and former chairman of US Federal Reserve Board
Source: Interviewed on BBC television (September 8, 2009) -
"It is a bit like trying to cure a cancer patient, while also training him for next year's marathon."Bruce Anderson, British journalist
On attempts to lead the economy out of recession while also cutting government spending.
Source: Independent (London) (August 10, 2009) -
"When this crisis began, crucial decisions about what would happen to some of the world's biggest companies-companies employing tens of thousands of people and holding trillions of dollars in assets-took place in emergency meetings in the middle of the night. We should not be forced to choose between allowing a company to fall into a rapid and chaotic dissolution or to support the company with taxpayer money. That is unacceptable."Barack Obama (1961–), US president
Source: Speech introducing proposed regulatory reforms for the financial sector (June 17, 2009) -
"By rescuing the financial system without reforming it, Washington has done nothing to protect us from a new crisis, and, in fact, has made another crisis more likely."Paul R. Krugman (1953–), US economist
Source: New York Times (July 16, 2009) -
"Companies that weren’t much more than pot-fueled ideas scrawled on napkins by up-too-late bong smokers were taken public via IPOs, hyped in the media, and sold to the public for mega-millions. It was as if banks like Goldman were wrapping ribbons around watermelons, tossing them out 50-story windows, and opening the phones for bids. In this game you were a winner only if you took your money out before the melon hit the pavement."Matt Taibbi (1970–), US journalist
On the dot.com bubble of 1999-2000.
Source: Rolling Stone (New York) (July 2009) -
William Keegan (1938–), British author and journalist
On the recession of 2008-2009.
Source: Observer (London) (June 14, 2009) -
"Everyone is saying that we’re on a tightrope, and we certainly are in mid-air over a gorge. But where is the rope?"Anonymous
On the state of the British economy.
Source: Anonymous Tory MP quoted in the Independent (London) (December 7, 2009) -
"I believe that committed people of good intentions, in both the private sector and the government, worked desperately hard in late 2008 to prevent a collapse of the global financial system … I believe these efforts will be well remembered long after any current controversy is forgotten."Ken Lewis (1947–), US banker, CEO of Bank of America
Source: Testimony given before the US Congress (June 11, 2009) -
"When the crash came, the free market had no answers, no self-correcting mechanisms and no solutions."Ivon Fallon, British journalist and author
Source: Independent (London) (November 27, 2009) -
"The commercial storm leaves its path strewn with ruin. When it is over there is calm, but a dull, heavy calm."Alfred Marshall (1842–1924), British economist
Source: Quoted in the Economist (London) (October 1, 2009) -
"Notwithstanding the disaster of 2008–09, every single developed country will have ended up the decade richer than it began."Hamish McRae, British journalist
Source: Independent (London) (December 9, 2009) -
"The lesson, surely, is that the recurring nature and the frequency of such follies, and their mutation into hitherto undreamt of forms, suggest that they are in fact an inherent cost of capitalism, or even human nature … The delusion now would be to believe that any system of regulation could prevent such crises and busts happening again."Sean O’Grady, British economics journalist
Source: Independent (London) (November 20, 2009) -
"There’s a strange thing goes on inside a bubble. It’s hard to describe. People who are in it can’t see outside of it, don’t believe there is an outside."Lucy Prebble, British playwright
Source: Enron (2009) -
"Once you’re in a bubble, it needs nerves of steel to stay out. Can you imagine the pressure? On any trader? Everyone around you is making money … and you’re the one who says I don’t believe in securitised credit arrangements?"Sir David Hare (1957–), British playwright
Source: The Power of Yes (2009)
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