Edward C. Prescott Quotes

It's really important that policy be properly designed. It's not enough just to.. .get angry over a subject.

I prefer to work at the policy level, on trying to fix flawed government policies.

Policy is driven by more than politics, however. It is equally driven by ideas.

I wanted to work on policy because I think it really makes a difference.

I don't think in national categories. For me it [policy] is about concepts and substance.

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option.

Well they have an input into policy but in the end governments are elected to put together policy but the good thing about the Wentworth Group is that you know you've got 11 pretty capable people with a lot of good ideas.

In general, I found that the more that debates can be about facts and data, the more likely government is to make sound decisions that benefit innovators and the American people.

We have no strategy. It is the government that sets the strategy. All we can do it try and figure out what the government will do.

All policy is targeted in one way or another.

Successful and unsuccessful political policies have one commonalty. The people who created the policies thought they would be successful.

Certainly the policy is right and good politics usually follow good policy.

Every plausible policy must be followed by the question 'And then what?'

My mantra about everything that has to do with public policy is: identify and reject the false choice.

I see myself as more of a policy maker than a political leader.

Good organization does not necessarily mean it will produce good policy. But bad organization will almost never produce good policy.

Almost everything you do fails. To develop a great success we must have thousands of failures along the way

The civil servant, the general or admiral, the foreign service officer has no authority to make policy. The act only as servants to the government and therefore they must remain in line with the government policy that is established by those that have been elected by the people to set that policy.

Where we have blundered into trying to force a policy or decision, even though wise and right, we have impeded if not interrupted the realization of our own aims.

When I make a mistake once, it's usually not going to happen again.

Everyone makes mistakes along the way, but we learn from our mistakes.

I'm an implementer of policy, not a maker of policy.

To say that I'm going to veto something that I haven't read is just - or sign something that I haven't read - I don't think is good policy for any chief executive.

In life, we always make the right decisions the second time around, you know?