Joan Robinson quotes - page 2

In general, the nightmare quality of Marx's thought gives it, in this bedevilled age, an air of greater reality than the gentle complacency of the orthodox academics. Yet he, at the same time, is more encouraging than they, for he releases hope as well as terror from Pandora's box, while they preach only the gloomy doctrine that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. (Joan Robinson)
'Capital' is not what capital is called, it is what its name is called. View quote
Joan Robinson
If knowledge develops as capital accumulates, there need be no tendency to diminishing returns, and with constant returns there can be no tendency for the rate of profit to fall (always assuming that the problem of effective demand as ruled out). View quote
Joan Robinson
Michal Kalecki's claim to priority of publication is indisputable. View quote
Joan Robinson
I began to read Capital, just as one reads any book, to see what was in it; I found a great deal that neither its followers nor its opponents had prepared me to expect. View quote
Joan Robinson
When a large part of the market for British textiles was in the colonies, a fall in the price of tea and cocoa caused unemployment in Lancashire. View quote
Joan Robinson
Time, so to say, runs at right angles to the page at each point on the curve. View quote
Joan Robinson
But the tygers of wrath go the other way. Do not ask me why. It is just a fact I noticed when I was looking through field glasses from a machan. View quote
Joan Robinson
The bastard Keynesian doctrine, evolved in the United States, invaded the economic faculties of the world, floating on the wings of the almighty dollar. View quote
Joan Robinson
It is high time to abandon the mainstream and take to the turbulent waters of truly dynamic analysis. View quote
Joan Robinson
An agent must have some discretion. (Joan Robinson)
Why did the hunters in the Wealth of Nations exchange beavers for deer? View quote
Joan Robinson
To supply goods is a source of profit, but to supply services is a ' burden upon industry '. It is for this reason that when, as a nation, ' we have never had it so good ' we find that we ' cannot afford ' just what we most need. View quote
Joan Robinson
Modern technique, as Marx pointed out, fosters the concentration of capital, and the levels of profits is supported by a scarcity of enterprise which is not due to the real cost of risk-bearing, but to the scarcity of individuals who have anything to risk. View quote
Joan Robinson
But once we bring historical time into the argument, it is not so easy to present the free play of the market as an ideal mechanism for maximizing welfare and securing social justice. View quote
Joan Robinson
the merchant had observed that the marginal utility of daughters decreases with surprising rapidity. View quote
Joan Robinson
To supply goods is a source of profit, but to supply services is a ' burden upon industry. View quote
Joan Robinson
Progress is slow partly from mere intellectual inertia. In a subject where there is no agreed procedure for knocking out errors, doctrines have a long life. View quote
Joan Robinson
Even if the crises that are looming up are overcome and a new run of prosperity lies ahead, deeper problems will still remain. View quote
Joan Robinson
Their attitude to Marx, as the leading critic of capitalism, is therefore much less cocksure than it used to be. In my belief, they have much to learn from him. View quote
Joan Robinson
There is an unearthly, mystical element in Friedman's thought. (Joan Robinson)
Progress is slow partly from mere intellectual inertia. In a subject where there is no agreed procedure for knocking out errors, doctrines have a long life. A professor teaches what he was taught, and his pupils, with a proper respect and reverence for teachers, set up a resistance against his critics for no other reason than that it was he whose pupils they were. View quote
Joan Robinson
There is an unearthly, mystical element in Friedman's thought. The mere existence of a stock of money somehow promotes expenditure. But insofar as he offers an intelligible theory, it is made up of elements borrowed from Keynes. View quote
Joan Robinson
Even if the crises that are looming up are overcome and a new run of prosperity lies ahead, deeper problems will still remain. Modern capitalism has no purpose except to keep the show going. View quote
Joan Robinson
I claim that this dinner, too much to eat and drink, was the basic reason why, for the only time in my life, I slept with Joan Robinson. Let me tell you the story. Ken Arrow was to read his famous paper - we know now that it was famous - on uncertainty and the economics of medical care, and I was one of the guests asked to come to the Arts Theatre Restaurant. It was a cold winter's night, we ate and drank a lot, and then we went into this room with a great big fire and a huge couch. Joan sat here, and I sat there, and Ken was sitting as close to me as you are now, and both Joan and I went to sleep while he read his paper. View quote
Joan Robinson