Nikita Khrushchev Quotes

Economics is everywhere, and understanding economics can help you make better decisions and lead a happier life.

Economics is counterintuitive. It just is.

The dictates of economics, that "dismal science," limit the benefits of medical science

Economics is not about goods and services; it is about human choice and action.

Economics is a choice between alternatives all the time. Those are the trade-offs.

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.

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.

First rule of Economics 101: our desires are insatiable. Second rule: we can stomach only three Big Macs at a time.

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

In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability.

The reality is that we are all economists. We all deal with scarcity as we make choices and calculate how to ration various items and resources that we consume, produce and utilize.

Teach a parrot the terms 'supply and demand' and you've got an economist.

Textbooks describe economics as the study of the allocation of scarce resources. That definition may be the 'what,' but it certainly is not the 'why.'

In business, real jobs profitably produce goods and services that people value more highly than their alternatives. Subsidizing inefficient jobs is costly, wastes resources, and weakens our economy.

The law of diminishing returns is something I really believe in.

Most economic fallacies derive … from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

Economics is built on the assumption of scarcity. Therefore, it deals with values and calculations. It cannot seek the good that fits a specific person within a given human condition. Where scarcity rules, ethics is reduced to numbers and utility. Further, the person engaged in the manipulation of mathematical formulas loses his or her ear for ethical nuance; one becomes morally deaf.

Every thing receives a value from its use, and the Value is raised [or lowered], according to its Quality, Quantity and Demand.

The general principles of political economy teach us to buy all our commodities where we can have them the cheapest; and perhaps there is no general rule in the whole compass of the science to which fewer justifiable exceptions can be found in practice

The primary role of the economist is to find out the truth about the real world.

If it doesn’t make economic sense, it doesn’t happen

Traditional economics is based on imaginary creatures sometimes referred to as 'Homo economicus.' I call them Econs for short. Econs are amazingly smart and are free of emotion, distraction or self-control problems. Think Mr. Spock from 'Star Trek.'

Economics has revealed a great truth about the natural law of human interaction: that not only is production essential to man's prosperity and survival, but so also is exchange.

There's a harsh reality to situations where demand outstrips supply.

To start with, anybody who would like the world to be a better place should be able to think like an economist.