George Schultz Quotes
In this day and age, a big economy – a modern economy – just cannot be managed from the top.
George P. Shultz, U. S. Secretary of State (Republican), Interview, C-SPAN, Booknotes, April 29, 1993
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There have always been economic and political ideologues. However in the George W. Bush administration ideological purity was a key criterion for appointment, and many appointments were made of ideologues who had no experience and had accomplished little previously. This quotation was a criticism of the unfettered free market ideology of so many of the Bush appointees. Critics like Bernstein saw this ideological focus as opposed to pragmatism, as responsible for the poor economic record of the Bush administration. Apologists for Bush and conservative economic ideology attribute the economic problems to cycles over which the administration and government had little control.
China was going though a major change of economic structure and national policy, moving to a Western style, capitalist, market economy. This was led by Zhao and Deng. However there were ensconced communist, Marxist idealogues still in place in the government, and a few of them were very vocal about their negative reaction to this abandonment of socialist principles. One economists who was particularly vocal was thus warned and reprimanded by Zhao. He got the message.
George Pratt Shultz was an American economist, diplomat, and businessman. He served in various positions under three different Republican presidents and is one of only two people to have held four different Cabinet-level posts. Shultz played a major role in shaping the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. From 1974 to 1982, he was an executive of the Bechtel Group, an engineering and services company. In the 2010s, Shultz was a prominent figure in the scandal of the biotech firm Theranos, continuing to support it as a board member in the face of mounting evidence of fraud.
