Charlie Munger Quotes

I started off thinking that maybe the social sciences ought to have the kinds of mathematics that the natural sciences had. That works a little bit in economics because they talk about costs, prices and quantities of goods.

The economist rarely examines the presuppositions of the models with which he works. The economist simply commences with individuals as evaluating, choosing, and acting units. This starting point for analysis necessarily draws attention to the choice or decision environment for the individuals who must make selections from among the alternatives.

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.'

The tradition of Chicago price theory is a good one, and it is a low-tech methodology that tries to apply simple economic theory to the world.

Economics is counterintuitive. It just is.

Neoclassical economics ... has uncovered important truths about the nature of money and markets because its fundamental model of rational self-interested human behavior is correct about 80% of the time.

Economists often like startling theorems, results which seem to run counter to conventional wisdom.

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

Economists discount any factors that would not influence the thinking of a rational person.

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

Economics is a very difficult subject. I've compared it to trying to learn how to repair a car when the engine is running.

Neoclassical economics insists that advertising cannot force consumers to buy anything they don't already want to buy.

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

There's a very good reason for why economics developed the way it did, and that is that in many situations, the assumption that people will exploit the opportunities available to them is very plausible, and it simplifies the analysis of how markets will behave.

I entered economics because of a course I took on 'information economics,' which I found fascinating.

Experimental economics is about conducting experiments: bringing economics into the laboratory or creating controlled conditions in the field that allow us to understand better what we are seeing in less controlled circumstances.

So many of the great thought leaders that have shaped economics - Gary Becker, Milton Friedman - what an unbelievable success story they've had in their field.

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

It is the business of economists, not to tell us what to do, but show why what we are doing anyway is in accord with proper principles.

The first rule of economics is that there is an infinite number of desires chasing a finite number of goods, services and resources. The first rule of politics is to ignore the first rule of economics.

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.

Economics is not an attempt to generalize human desires or human behavior; but to generalize the phenomena of price.

How should the best parts of psychology and economics interrelate in an enlightened economist's mind?... I think that these behavioral economics...or economists are probably the ones that are bending them in the correct direction. I don't think it's going to be that hard to bend economics a little to accommodate what's right in psychology.

Prior to the early 1960s, economic theorists rarely constructed models customized to capture unique institutions or specific market characteristics.

As an undergraduate at UBC in Canada, I fell in love with economic theory. It was the right choice for me.