Adam Smith Quotes

We use competitive markets to arrange for delivery of our food supply.

We have an imbalance over how much we produce relative to how much we consume.

Economists are economical, among other things, of ideas; most make those of their graduate days do for a lifetime.

Perhaps the most widespread misunderstanding of economics is that it applies solely to financial transactions. Frequently this leads to statements that "there are noneconomic values" to consider. There are, of course, noneconomic values. Indeed, there are only noneconomic values. Economics is not a value itself but merely a method of trading off one value against another.

Those who satisfy the wants of a smaller number of people only collect fewer votes-dollars-than those who satisfy the wants of more people.

Prices impose the most effective kind of rationing - self-rationing. Why is rationing necessary? Because what everybody wants always adds up to more than there is. . .Resources are limited but desires are not. That is the basic and defining problem of economics.

If no one consumes these products, people will stop roducing them. They will not build it if you didn't come.

There cannot be overproduction of anything which men and women want. And their wants are unlimited, except by the size of their stomachs.

The more one produces, the less one gets.

As an economist, I'm aware that life is full of trade offs.

We've tapped into a huge demand, and it's up to us to fulfill that demand and to be creative doing it.

Stores don't order merchandise unless they think they can sell it right away. Manufacturers and builders don't produce unless they have buyers lined up. My business contacts describe this as a paradigm shift and they believe it's permanent.

When consumers do not take full advantage of efficiency gains, it is because they are weighing other factors that influence their decision making. When the federal government arbitrarily places one of those factors over others, it makes consumers worse off.

Since scarcity is the basic economic problem, if it does not exist then there is no reason for my economics course. Devoting time to the study of how people use limited resources to fulfill unlimited wants and needs should help us to discover how to best utilize the resources we have at our disposal.

A consumer doesn't take anything away: he doesn't actually consume anything. Giving the same thing to a thousand consumers is not really any more expensive than giving it to just one.

The exchangeable value of all commodities, rises as the difficulties of their production increase.

'Perfect competition' is considered both the ideal and the default state in Economics 101. So-called perfectly competitive markets achieve equilibrium when producer supply meets consumer demand.

Microeconomics is the study of how specific choices made by businesses, consumers and governments affect the markets for different goods and services. For example, a microeconomist might examine how price changes affect sales of apples relative to oranges.

Part of the film business is, if you want an apple, you buy an apple.

Nothing exists if a store doesn't buy it and you're not able to get it.

Economics should be defined in terms of what it is about. It should be about how people produce things, how people exchange them, how people earn income, how they pay taxes, how the government provides infrastructure with tax revenue, and how it conducts monetary policy. The subject has to be defined in terms of the object of inquiry.

Supply always comes on the heels of demand.

What I have done is to show the importance for the working of the economic system of what may be termed the institutional structure of production.

The main reason why it is profitable to establish a firm would seem to be that there is a cost of using the price mechanism. The most obvious cost of 'organizing' production through the price mechanism is that of discovering what the relevant prices are.

The key to economic prosperity is the organized creation of dissatisfaction