Lawrence Summers Quotes

#1. Start with the idea that you can't repeal the laws of economics. Even if they are inconvenient.

Lawrence Summers

#2. The dramatic modernization of the Asian economies ranks alongside the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution as one of the most important developments in economic history.

Lawrence Summers

#3. Takeovers wouldn't cause the stock market to rise unless there is an upward reassessment of earnings (potential). People are more optimistic and confident about the future.

Lawrence Summers

#4. As long as we keep our fundamentals strong ... the dollar (and) U.S. borrowing costs will do just fine.

Lawrence Summers

#5. The major challenge for the United States is whether it can become the first outward-looking, continental, nonimperialist power in history.

Lawrence Summers

#6. It was wrong to allow Stalin to shape the European landscape of the 20th century. It would be even more wrong to let him shape the landscape of the 21st century.

Lawrence Summers

#7. We are inheriting the worst financial system since the Depression. We're inheriting a situation - when people go back and study major banking crises a quarter century from now, the one that America developed in 2007 and 2008 is going to be one of those crises.

Lawrence Summers

#8. It used to be said that when the U.S. sneezed, the world caught a cold. The opposite is equally true today.

Lawrence Summers

#9. THERE ARE IDIOTS. Look around.

Lawrence Summers

#10. The United States basically accepted protection abroad as the price of post-war recovery. Now, that these countries have caught up to our level of prosperity, it is time for them to catch up to our level of openness.

Lawrence Summers

#11. With uncertainty in oil markets, a buildup of speculative pressures and the large U.S. current account deficit, there is a real possibility that Paulson's crisis-management skills will be tested.

Lawrence Summers

#12. It says something about this new global economy that USA Today now reports every morning on the day's events in Asian markets.

Lawrence Summers

#13. Blaming speculators as a response to financial crisis goes back at least to the Greeks. It's almost always the wrong response.

Lawrence Summers

#14. 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 Summers

#15. If you look at the history of the American capital market, there's probably no innovation more important than the idea of generally accepted accountancy principles.

Lawrence Summers

#16. Investment in girls' education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world.

Lawrence Summers

#17. It certainly was difficult to sell NAFTA because it's always difficult to sell open markets.

Lawrence Summers

#18. I promise you that there are a lot of people involved in various kinds of retail activities who think they have a crucial role in the economy, and they're right.

Lawrence Summers

#19. In politics, as in poetry, it is sometimes true that it is darkest before dawn.

Lawrence Summers

#20. Where countries have been able to carry through on their reform commitments
as in Korea, Thailand and the Philippines
results are starting to come in the form of lower interest rates, new investment and increased growth.

Lawrence Summers

#21. It's important to remember how fortunate we are as a country to have a currency and a bond market that is seen in every way as a source of strength and it's a huge responsibility for us to keep it that way.

Lawrence Summers

#22. But ultimately what I was impressed by during my years in government was how much the intellectual climate and the prevailing intellectual notions constrained and represented the universe within which the discourse took place.

Lawrence Summers

#23. Many children are taught to believe in God. I came to believe in the power of systems analysis.

Lawrence Summers

#24. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to it.

Lawrence Summers

#25. All taxes discourage something. Why not discourage bad things like pollution rather than good things like working?

Lawrence Summers

#26. In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.

Lawrence Summers

#27. Most investors want to do today what they should have done yesterday.

Lawrence Summers

#28. Spread the truth-the laws of economics are like the laws of engineering. One set of laws works everywhere.

Lawrence Summers

#29. I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted.

Lawrence Summers

#30. There are children who are working in textile businesses in Asia who would be prostitutes on the streets if they did not have those jobs.

Lawrence Summers

#31. Deflation and secular stagnation are the risks of our time.

Lawrence Summers

#32. In this age of electronic money, investors are no longer seduced by a financial 'dance of a thousand veils.' Only hard and accurate information on reserves, current accounts, and monetary and fiscal conditions will keep capital from fleeing precipitously at the first sign of trouble.

Lawrence Summers

#33. You can't have a situation in which companies proceed on a permanent basis relying only on cash from the government.

Lawrence Summers

#34. Now is the time for us to strike. We must strengthen our foothold in Asia, to ensure no nation overtakes us.

Lawrence Summers

#35. The availability of private insurance provides tremendous insulation for millions of individuals.

Lawrence Summers

#36. The idea that we should be open to all ideas, is very different from the supposition that all ideas are equally valid.

Lawrence Summers

#37. We must recognise that in an integrated world, trade cannot be divorced from other concerns. We need to promote free trade and serious global efforts with respect to common problems even as we support every nation's right to chart its own course.

Lawrence Summers

#38. A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.

Lawrence Summers

#39. The only antidote to dangerous ideas is strong alternatives vigorously advocated.

Lawrence Summers

#40. Contagion has become very much a phenomenon, and it's a phenomenon of globalization.

Lawrence Summers