Robert Reich Quotes

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

Job loss is coming like a tsunami.

There are always, of course, job losses of a cyclical nature in a recession.

Nevada was hit hardest by the recession - highest unemployment, highest foreclosure rate, highest bankruptcy rate.

People don't walk away from their homes unless they can't make the payments. That's an indication that we are in a recession.

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

Up until the Depression, recession had a moral character: it was supposed to purge the body economic of the greed and excess that attends a business expansion.

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

A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours.

The economy is in tatters; your job is in trouble - if you still have a job. And you know what? I've been saying it for years.

When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.

Wall Street is in trouble because Main Street is broke.

We are watching industries crumble, Wall Street firms disappear, unemployment spike, and unprecedented government intervention. And our designated opinion leaders want to know: Is Obama up this week? Is he down? And is his leadership style more like Bill Clinton's, or Abraham Lincoln's?

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

Alas, in 1929 came the Stock Market crash and everything changed and became worrisome. People started practicing conservatism because of financial losses, myself included.

We had a booming stock market in 1929 and then went into the world's greatest depression. We have a booming stock market in 1999. Will the bubble somehow burst, and then we enter depression? Well, some things are not different.

Economies are risky. Some industries rise, and others implode, like housing. Some places get richer, and others drop, like Atlantic City. Some people get new jobs that pay better, many lose their jobs or their wages.

Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs.

Americans are terrified because so many of them have been laid off in recent years and months and they fear that they may be next. Even if they have not been laid off or have not known anyone laid off, they definitely know someone who has lost his home.

Listen, I wish economic growth only went in one direction. It doesn't. There are economic downturns. They're painful, they're harmful, and they hurt families.

I used to boast that Whole Foods was sort of recession-proof. And obviously I've been proven wrong. So I'm not boasting about that any longer.

Uncertainty is killing this economy.

When our economy is not growing, those least able to look after themselves are the first thrown overboard ...

I don't think it's the end of the world even if we have a recession. We'll pull back out of it again. No big deal.

Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.