Stuart Eizenstat Quotes

There isn’t that much that Washington can do to effect the economy.

The economy controls the politicians far more than the politicians control the economy.

The normal half-brained politician sometimes doesn't understand capital markets.

On Wall Street, financial crisis destroys jobs. Here in Washington, it creates them. The rest is just details.

We cannot separate politics from economics.

Macroeconomic policy can never be devoid of politics: it involves fundamental trade-offs and affects different groups differently.

If you have a traditional view of economics, you're probably thinking of Ben Bernanke making Fed policy, or the guys creating financial derivatives at Goldman Sachs.

People like Hillary Clinton think you grow the economy by growing Washington.

There is no left or right in economic management today.

Either you believe in markets, or you believe in government.

Monetary policy and fiscal policy are inseparable.

Bond traders now veto presidents.

Most politicians want to be seen as leading the parade. Thus they act to make a good thing better, and when markets slip, they find ways to limit the economic freedom of others.

The division of responsibility between economics and politics is indeed one of the most difficult dilemmas with which we are confronted. "Give me a sound economic position, and I will pursue a sound policy", says the Statesman. "How can I pursue a sound policy", says the Economist, "if you do not give me a sound political position?”

Washington office-holders pontificating on markets, taxes, and monetary policy are usually repeating the ideas of some dead economist, often one of whom the orator had no inkling.

The Federal Reserve is playing a mind game—but with enormous real-world consequences.

Everybody has to remember that economics is very tied to politics.

First, I think the science of monetary economics has clearly gotten better.

This bill, the Sound Dollar Act, is all about looking forward about the role the Fed should play.

The phrase 'perception is reality' is overused generally. But perception can be reality in monetary policy. The bond market doesn't act merely on what it sees. It acts on what it expects of the Fed or the government.

There's nothing the people love more than a Federal Reserve joke.

It's true that the Federal Reserve faces a lot of political pressure and is unpopular in many circles.

The powers vested in the Federal Reserve Board seen to me highly dangerous especially where there is political control of the Board.

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

Government has a perfect right, indeed a duty, to intervene in the economy in the name of justice, ecology, strategic interests, full employment, or other public goods in which the market has and can have no interest.