Henry Paulson Quotes

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by 'unbridled' you mean unregulated.

We want a free market, but we know that the paradox of a 'free' market is that sometimes you have to intervene. You have to make sure it's not the law of the jungle but the laws of democracy that works.

While admirers of capitalism, we also to a certain extent believe it has limitations that require government intervention in markets to make them work.

Markets that don't work we're going to step away from.

…society in a modern democracy will not permit unregulated control over production and sale of its necessities.

The only way you can stop the unregulated monopoly ... from gouging ... is to introduce competition.

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

It is time that we dispensed with the myth that the market is a force of nature that should not be meddled with. Markets are social creations that can be, and have been, modified for social purposes.

Generally I'm against regulation.

I do not believe that the government is in any position to say exactly how every single business and every single activity shall reach those performances.

Many markets work best with little or no outside interference. But others - especially those subject to big 'externalities' - need a helping hand.

We need open, competitive, market economies... but at the same time with effective regulation and supervision.

The people were told in the last campaign that trusts [corporate monopolies] were a natural evolution, and that the only way to deal with them was to regulate them. The people are tired of being told such things. What they want is the kind of opportunity that formerly existed in this country.

Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers.

The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.

More and more it is evident that the State and if necessary the Nation, has got to possess the right of supervision and control as regards the great corporations.

Today we see how utterly mistaken was the Milton Friedman notion that a market system can regulate itself... Everyone understands now, on the contrary, that there can be no solution without government.

The U.S. is not pure capitalism. In fact, there's no place for pure capitalism, unregulated capitalism. We have a regulated system.

I support social market economy. But it only works if there is fair competition.

Control freak politicians never rest, and a few of the more dedicated ones are working relentlessly to slap chains on the world's most unfettered market. The Marketplace Fairness Act will end up forcing consumers to pay higher prices for the goods they desire.

I think we had quite enough capitalism in the last eight years; I think we need some regulation now.

Let's face a historical truth: we have never had a "free market", we have always had government intervention in the economy, and indeed that intervention has been welcomed by the captains of finance and industry. They had no quarrel with "big government" when it served their needs.

We no longer have a free market in the United States, we have a government controlled free market.

After we have calmly stood by and allowed monopolies to grow fat, we should not be asked to make them bloated.

The one thing that I know government is good for is countervailing against monopoly. It's not great at that either, but it's the only force I know that is fairly reliable.