Angus Deaton Quotes

Perhaps the globalization potion is too strong for us today; it should be watered down with some measure of economic nationalism.

Foreign trade clearly has been a reason why inflation has been low.

Internal protectionism in Europe would be deadly, really a disaster for European economies.

The common People have been pleased with large Emissions of Bills [printing of money]: And as for a Plenty of this Paper Currency, they loved to have it so, not considering what they should do in the End thereof. The People have chosen rather to lay up Debts for their Children in these promissory Bills, than to pay their Debts themselves. Nay, Is it not to be feared that many have been wishing for Plenty of these Bills with this View, that they might depreciate, that so they might the more easily pay their Debts.

Unfettered free trade has led to a disaster.

Withdrawing support from globalization is taking us in the wrong direction.

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

There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose

If there is one measure better calculated than another to produce that state of things so much deprecated by all true republicans, by which the rich are daily adding to their hoards and the poor sinking deeper into penury, it is an exclusive metallic currency.

The thing that we have to worry about is this protectionist movement that has reared its head again in this country

Money was the crux. Raising money to pay the cost of war was to cause more damage to 14th century society than the physical destruction of war itself.

For in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins.

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. ... … Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.

When the new states of Europe were created by the Treaty of Versailles their new governments, lacking revenue and not daring to impose direct taxes on their people, resorted to the dangerous expedient of imposing high taxes at the border on merchandise seeking to enter their markets from abroad. An immediate slowing down of commerce resulted.

When the value of silver began to decrease, provident governments in other countries very wisely took measures to stop the minting of silver coins. The Mexican Government did not show any interest in the matter for more than twenty years, during which time foreign miners freely brought their silver bullion to the mints to have it coined; and with the money thus obtained they bought up all the gold coins in Mexico and exported them, with profit to themselves and loss to Mexico.

Nothing so weakens governments as persistent inflation.

It is the system now called free trade that tends to the destruction of commerce, as is shown wherever it obtains.

A lot of people believe, and I do at times, that some of our trade agreements are lopsided, and we've got to look at them. But that doesn't mean that we're going to put a tariff on everything.

Most Republicans and the business community extol the virtues of trade, depicting it as an engine of economic progress, while most Democrats and unions attack the exportation of American jobs, claiming that trade agreements are destroying our economy.

There's no point in treating a currency like a commodity, devaluing it artificially and causing a lot of poverty among poor countries.

When monetary policy destroys the currency, it always destroys the middle class.

Protectionism is something that will hurt everybody, but especially the United States.

We have a government that purposely counterfeits and debases the currencies, and I believe that the alternative would be a competition. That means that anything that wants to substitute for the American dollar should be permitted.

I've seen the impact of poorly negotiated trade agreements on manufacturing in Maine.

In the panic of 1819, the protectionists stressed the lack of consumer markets abroad and the necessity for building up a market at home. The inflationists, on the other hand, stressed the shortage of money capital available to manufacturers as a cause of the crisis.