Phil Gramm Quotes

Americans reading the paper, listening to the news every single day, and all you hear is things are getting worse and worse. And that has a psychological effect on consumer confidence. That's what consumer confidence is.

I would say 70 percent of people who are in therapy are in therapy not because of their upbringing, not because of their mean sister or obsessions, but because of anxiety brought about by lack of financial security.

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.

No I don't think it was a myth at all, anymore than what the recession that the whole country was experiencing was a myth, which obviously seems like it's going to get worse and worse.

The stress on the financial system in the fall of 2007 was significant, but not so significant as to threaten the overall stability of the U.S. economy, although it did lead to the beginning of a recession at the end of 2007.

Some people are so used to experiencing stress that they don't remember what life was like without it.

Pressure and stress is the common cold of the psyche.

When you're mid-season, in very intense situations, it's hard not to take that home with you. Especially when you're sleeping, you can't control what you dream about. And it sneaks into the unconscious.

I haven't gone completely insane, but it might happen soon.

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

An obsessive attention to the news, I've realized, only serves to paint a picture of the world as a throbbing blob of dysfunction, most news falling somewhere on a scale from disappointing to calamitous.

Everyone drinks more during a recession; they want to forget.

Uncertainty is killing this economy.

All currency is neurotic currency.

We don't sit down and go, 'People are uneasy about the economy. Let's write about that.'

Tell me, do you think I'm going mad? I sometimes wonder, you know.

At many points during our nation's history, there have been times - known in our history textbooks as 'panics' - when adverse conditions affecting the financial and economic sectors of the country have caused individuals to hoard more than they need.

I think that what people imagine they're going through is much worse than what they are going through.

People blame themselves for their own layoffs…. We ignore the effect on mental health. Every person in this society who is laid off is told that they lack value…. We undermine public health.

The upward economic movement in America has undoubtedly reached its end – the crisis has come.

It’s hard to absorb the horrors of the world on a daily basis.

I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions.

It wears on your soul when you take on the mental state of a dark character.

To qualify as a recession, economic activity must decline in an absolute sense; a mere slowdown in real growth is not enough.

This was 2008, you know. The economy was falling apart, spiraling. And I was hosting a game in New York, and there was $5 to $7 million on the table.