Peter G. Peterson Quotes

Economic downturns in the United States generally occur when the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to keep inflation in check When the Fed's Open Market Committee believes that it has brought inflation under control, it can start to lower rates and reverse the downturn. But the recession that began in 2007 [The Great Recession] was unusual: since the Fed did not casuse that downturn by tightening monetary policy, it could not reverse it by lowering short term interest rates. The downturn was the result of market mispricing assets, including financial assets such as equities and mortgage-backed securities and real assets such as housing.

The way you create deflation is you create an asset bubble.

The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses.

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.

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.

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

From time to time, capitalism has a tendency to implode.

If one wants to avoid the recurrence of economic crises, one must avoid the expansion of credit that creates the boom and inevitably leads into the slump.

People aren't as impressed by homes anymore after they saw how they collapsed in price with the financial crisis.

Every serious deflation I've looked at is preceded by an asset bubble, and then it bursts.

A recession is when a neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.

No one saw the recession coming.

The impact of the downturn is starting to feel very real. House prices and the housing market have been taking the knock for some time and that's affecting people.

Not every business cycle has a financial crisis. Frequently they do.

We now have the worst of both worlds – not just inflation on the one side or stagnation on the other side, but both of them together. We have sort of “stagflation” situation.

A recession is a period in which you tighten your belt. In a depression, you have no belt to tighten. In a panic you have no pants left to hold up.

When you get inflation, you get massive distortions of the economy.

When the economy is bad, the economy is the only issue.

When the economy gets wobbly, people pay attention to the leadership failures.

There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash..

I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool's paradise, and that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future

We just went through the biggest housing bubble in history and now housing prices are starting to go up again. I don’t know what to make of that.

I have 13 bankers in my office, and they say that if you go forward with this you will cause the worst financial crisis since World War II.

The economic repercussions of a stock market crash depend less on the severity of the crash itself than on the response of economic policymakers, particularly central bankers.

We spend too much, we borrow too much, and we distort the markets. The bigger the distortions have lasted, the bigger the bust will be.