Rana Foroohar Quotes

It appears that Wall Street is not acting as a force for economic expansion, providing access to capital for companies that make things. Rather, it seems, Wall Street is using government bailouts to lever up.

My first priority is growing this economy in the long term, and stimulating it in the short term.

The market economy does not automatically guarantee growth, social justice, or even economic efficiency; achieving those ends requires that government play an important role.

The real problems of our economy began when the very smart people of our society went to Wall Street.

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

Everyone has an interest in the economy: in how it functions, how well it functions, and in whose interests it functions.

If the United States does well [economically], then the whole world does well.

America's economic illness has a name: financialization. It's an academic term for the trend by which Wall Street and its methods have come to reign supreme in America, permeating not just the financial industry but also much of American business.

If we had 3 percent growth, which is what we're trying to get to, what we're at, by the way, right now, we're trying to maintain that 3 percent growth. If we had been at 3 percent growth over the last ten years, the budget very nearly would be balanced in 2017. That's how big a difference it makes when you grow the American economy that additional 1 percent over ten years.

Banks should contribute to the real economy, make a positive contribution to economic growth.

We are enjoying the longest sustained growth period in recent history. But the capital controls are very damning for investment interest in Iceland but also very damaging to the real economy where we are losing opportunities.

The bottom line of a successful economic policy is jobs.

No President is going to be satisfied with 3% growth in the economy even when you explain to him that over the long term things will be fine for everyone at 3% growth. He says: 'I'll go for 5% growth and let the next guy settle for 3%.'

Ours is an economy that depends on the availability of credit at affordable interest rates.

Economies that are open to trade grow faster.

The second evil arising from the practice of banking, has its origin, in the system of credit itself; and the shock which, as it is rounded on prevailing opinion, it is liable to receive from whatever shakes public confidence.

The Commission concludes that, as massive losses spread throughout the financial system …, many institutions failed, or would have failed but for government bailouts. As panic gripped the market, credit markets seized up, trading ground to a halt, and the stock market plunged. Lack of transparency contributed greatly to the crisis: the exposures of financial institutions to risky mortgage assets and other potential losses were unknown to market participants, and indeed many firms did not know their own exposures.

This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing.

We had massive tax cuts in the early phases of the [George W.] Bush years… The decade following was the worst growth rate in over 60 years.

Economies are about momentum.

Financial institutions risk becoming socially useless unless they focus on the real economy and help businesses invest and create jobs.

Financial firms believed that if a crisis developed, the insatiable demand for exotic [financial] products would dissipate only slowly. They were mistaken.

It is past time to acknowledge that economic growth … is good, and that what the world needs is more of it.

Banks are employing risky derivatives strategies to goose up returns….the interbank market could freeze up, and one could well have a full blown financial crisis.

American economic history does not support the idea that a strong economy depends on chronic federal borrowing.