Regulation – which is based on force and fear – undermines the moral base of business dealings. It becomes cheaper to bribe a building inspector than to meet his standards of construction. Protection of the consumer by regulation is thus illusory.
ALAN GREENSPANInstitutions of the newer participants in global finance had not been tested, until recently…recent crisis have underscored certain financial structure vulnerabilities that are not readily assuaged in the short run.
More Alan Greenspan Quotes
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If I’ve made myself clear, I’ve misspoken.
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To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education – literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills.
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The problem is not lack of regulation but unrealistic expectations. What we confront in reality is uncertainty, some of it frighteningly so…
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It signals problems with respect to currency markets. Central banks should pay attention to it.
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They seem to sense… that gold and economic freedom are inseparable.
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You can’t have the capitalist system if an increasing number of people think it is unjust.
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I think that real pressure is going to occur not by the initiation by the Federal Reserve, but by the markets themselves.
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In the process we have created [a] privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at non-competitively high levels by immigration quotas on skilled professionals.
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But rules cannot substitute for character.
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Cash is available and we should use that in larger amounts, as is necessary, to solve the problems of the stress of this.
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Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity are in a state of shocked disbelief.
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The economy is turning, and credit comes in with a lag, .. To the extent that a number of small firms are finding it difficult to get the credit they need at a price they can afford, that’s likely to change for the better.
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Productivity is notoriously difficult to predict.
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A decline in the national housing price level would need to be substantial to trigger a significant rise in foreclosures, because the vast majority of homeowners have built up substantial equity in their homes despite large mortgage.
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It’s hard to overemphasize how important Ford’s deregulation was. True, most of the benefits took years to unfold-rail freight rates, for example hardly budged at first.
ALAN GREENSPAN