Kenneth C. Griffin Quotes

Nationalization, unmentionable only yesterday, has entered common usage not least because an even scarier word - depression - is next on America's list to avoid.

The economic meltdown that would define every aspect of Obama's economy came to a head well before he became president, of course, and so did the legislation that would be the basis for everything that came after.

During an economic crisis, what matters is that the government keeps its foot on the accelerator.

We are watching industries crumble, Wall Street firms disappear, unemployment spike, and unprecedented government intervention. And our designated opinion leaders want to know: Is Obama up this week? Is he down? And is his leadership style more like Bill Clinton's, or Abraham Lincoln's?

It's Obama's bad luck that he got elected just as the mayhem of the foreclosures, the banking collapse, and the General Motors disaster was accelerating the surge in unemployment to warp speed.

The euphoria around economic booms often obscures the possibility for a bust, which explains why leaders typically miss the warning signs.

I think when the bottom started to drop out, we didn't recognize it.

But despite historic levels of obstruction, President Obama was able to bring the economy back from the verge of a second Great Depression.

There are different flavors of recession. You can get into some pretty dark scenarios pretty quickly.

I worry about another leg down in the economies causing social disruption because deleveragings can be very painful - it depends on how they're managed.

Discussions of the economy, especially during times of crisis, are often framed in terms of lessons we supposedly learned during the Depression of the 1930s. If we are not to endure terrible times like those again, we are told, we must support whatever form of state intervention is currently being peddled.

When the economy gets wobbly, people pay attention to the leadership failures.

We really accomplished what we set out to do with the Recovery Act programs, which was to fill the lending gap created by the crisis.

There was no blueprint or how-to manual for fixing a global financial meltdown, an auto crisis, two wars and a great recession, all at the same time.

The failure of Lehman may have allowed the government to do more to prop up the economy than it otherwise could.

Obama came in and gave $700 billion to the bankers off the top as opposed to giving $700 billion to the poor.

This economy is on life support.

It's a European Union of economic failure, of mass unemployment and of low growth.

In all modesty, we must admit that governments are not always the best doctors when it comes to diagnosing economic ailments and prescribing the right treatment.

2008 was to the American economy what 9/11 was to national security. Yet while 9/11 prompted the U.S. government to tear up half the Constitution in the name of public safety, after 2008, authorities went in the other direction.

Long periods of recession, which tend to be self-perpetuating, are usually ended by war, or by preparations for it.

I started out in public service in 1998 after the Asian financial crisis of '97.

We say, 'The market plummets,' like it's some roaring creature.

I think the IMF helped to detonate the Indonesian crisis.

I think that if we don't get these politicians to come together we face the most predictable economic crisis in history.