Barney Frank Quotes

I support the state, but not the state-run economy. The state should intervene only to create the conditions necessary for the private sector to thrive.

We are a mixed economy. We will remain a mixed economy. The public and private sector will continue to play a very important role. The private sector in our country has very ample scope and I am confident that India's entrepreneurs have the capacity, and the will to rise to the occasion.

What do you think the appropriate role of government is in society? The way I look at this job is, you want me to do X? Well, is the private sector doing X with any kind of success? Because if they are, I'd rather have them do it than have us do it.

Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

I do not believe in government ownership of anything which can with propriety be left in private hands, and in particular I should most strenuously object to government ownership of railroads. In my judgment public ownership of railroads is highly undesirable and would probably in this country entail far-reaching disaster.

The private sector can only be a supplement to the state and collective sectors, and it can never predominate.

The government playing entrepreneur is not a good role for the government.

In a mixed economy the public sector remains constrained by the overarching requirement of maintaining an efficient and profitable private sector.

I am in favour of disinvestment. But if a disinvested company has to tie up with a government company for its livelihood, there is a problem.

I'm not a big government guy. I believe in private industries taking care of people. I think they do a better job.

I don't believe government should take over, you know, the grocery store down the street or own the means of production.

The economic welfare of all our people must ultimately stem not from government programs, but from the wealth created by a vigorous private sector.

While I have questions about the language used in describing the two economic systems, I think people have fairly good gut sense of the difference between socialism and capitalism.

A fundamental contradiction does not exist between socialism and a market economy.

Americans are sick of the idea of the government taking over everything and trying to run it. We don't know how to run a bank, a car company.

We (British) have reached the state where the private sector is that part of the economy the government controls and the public sector is that part that nobody controls.

It is true that the role of the state in the Russian economy may be too big today, but from the fiscal standpoint, it is not always practical to do this in a falling market.

There's a very good reason that governments aren't supposed to compete with private-enterprise companies. Governments have monopolies on certain things, like eminent domain and deadly force.

I would prefer the [USA] government to be the policeman and not the businessman.

The business of government is to keep the government out of business - that is, unless business needs government aid.

When I think about capitalism, I think about all the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in America for people to do that and to make a good living for themselves and their families. And I don't think we should confuse what we have to do every so often in America, which is save capitalism from itself.

There is no easy fix or youth unemployment. Partnership between the public and private sectors can make a big difference.

Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job.

A 'mixed economy' is a society in the process of committing suicide.

Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished.