Edward Lazear Quotes

Nothing is more destructive than the gap between people's perceptions of their own day-to-day economic well-being and what politicians and statisticians are telling them about the economy

In the case of the economy, the perception is the reality.

The economy is most important. It is off track.

Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.

I know the polling data shows people have a negative view but if you listen to everything out there, you think, my God. We're in such deep trouble. We created more jobs than every other industrial country in the world combined.

Every economy is uncertain. Referring to this or any economy as 'uncertain' is an unnecessary and pessimistic redundancy.

The public is even more pessimistic about the economy than even the most bearish economists are.

When you poll all of the economists, uh, across America that I think are intellectually honest they would all, or maybe not all, but 95% of them 96% of them would say you know we really have got a powerful economy.

It seems like everybody's perception of me is very bipolar. To one group, it's overpaid, overrated; to another group, it's underpaid, underrated, underdog. It's funny to me because there's no real balance.

It takes a full quarter for economic improvement to effect the electorate as they are skeptical.

The real crime rate and peoples perceptions are two different things.

The so-called leading [economic] indicators no longer answer the most important questions people are raising about how they live.

Economic growth is based partly on reality and partly on perception.

I think Americans are a lot smarter than many give them credit for.

To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don't be economic girlie men!

[T]he economy remains the top issue for the electorate.

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?

There are two things which ought to teach us to think but meanly of human glory; the very best have had their calumniators, the very worst their panegyrists.

People who read me seem to be divided into four groups: twenty-five percent like me for the right reasons; twenty-five percent like me for the wrong reasons; twenty-five percent hate me for the wrong reasons; twenty-five percent hate me for the right reasons. It's that last twenty-five percent that worries me.

The world is governed by opinion.

'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, When not to be, receives reproach of being, And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed, Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing.

Perception is reality. If you are perceived to be something, you might as well be it because that's the truth in people's minds.

Any lack of confidence in the economic future or the basic strength of business in the United States is foolish.

Power is founded upon opinion.

Our country's economy is strong, diversified, and resilient.