John Kenneth Galbraith quotes - page 4

However, it is safe to say that at the peak in 1929 the number of active speculators was less - and probably was much less - than a million. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
Men have been swindled by other men on many occasions. The autumn of 1929 was, perhaps, the first occasion when men succeeded on a large scale in swindling themselves. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Even the word depression itself was the terminological product of an effort to soften the connotation of deep trouble. In the last century, the term crisis was normally employed. With time, however, this acquired the connotation of the misfortune it described. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Of all the weapons in the Federal Reserve arsenal, words were the the most unpredictable in their consequences. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
But it can be laid down as a rule that those who speak most of liberty are least inclined to use it. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Only men of considerable vanity write books; consistently therewith, I worried lest the world were exchanging an irreplaceable author for a more easily purchased diplomat. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
All, the intelligent and stupid, diligent and idle, have been swept along on a current of increased output that, in the usual case, owed nothing whatever to their efforts. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
The masters thought they were loved until one day one of their favorites farted loudly while serving dinner and the next day was gone. The very first manifestation of the classless society is the disappearance of the servant class. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Simple minds, presumably, are the easiest to manage. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Those who yearn for the end of capitalism should pray for government by men who believe that all positive action is inimical to what they call thoughtfully the fundamental principles of free enterprise. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Nothing is more portable than rich people and their money. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
In economics, unlike fiction and the theater, there is no harm in a premature disclosure of the plot: it is to see the changes just mentioned and others as an interlocked whole. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Seaboard Air Line, which was thought by numerous innocents to provide a foothold in aviation, was another favorite, although, in fact, it was a railroad. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Agreeable as it is to know where one is proceeding, it is far more important to know where one has arrived. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Of all the mysteries of the stock exchange there is none so impenetrable as why there should be a buyer for everyone who seeks to sell. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
No one was responsible for the great Wall Street crash. No one engineered the speculation that preceded it. Both were the product of free choice and decision of hundreds of thousands of individuals. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Both we and the Soviets face the common threat of nuclear destruction and there is no likelihood that either capitalism or communism will survive a nuclear war. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
You roll back the stones, and you find slithering things. That is the world of Richard Nixon. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
In the assumption that power belongs as a matter of course to capital, all economists are Marxians. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowly and deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius. The resulting performance, though less inspiring, is far more predictable. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM requires that prices be under effective control. And it seeks the greatest possible influence over what buyers take at the established prices. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
Only in very recent times has the average man been a source of savings. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Men are, in fact, either sustained by organization or they sustain organization. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
We do not manufacture wants for goods we do not produce. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Broadly speaking, [Keynesianism means] that the government has a specific responsibility for the behavior of the economy, that it doesn't work on its own autonomous course, but the government, when there's a recession, compensates by employment, by expansion of purchasing power, and in boom times corrects by being a restraining force. But it controls the great flow of demand into the economy, what since Keynesian times has been the flow of aggregate demand. That was the basic idea of Keynes so far as one can put it in a couple of sentences. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith