George Monbiot Quotes

The importance of supervising the business of great railways and industrial combinations and the necessary investigation and prosecution of unlawful business methods are another necessary tax upon Government which did not exist half a century ago.

I don’t believe rolling back some regulations on Wall Street will in any way help the small business.

You can't just let companies self-regulate, and I've gotta think they get that, too.

Lawmakers must stand up for companies that choose public safety over profit margins.

I've seen disgusting excess in business, and I've seen disgusting excess in Washington. But at the same time, I've certainly learned that Washington matters and that you can't ignore it, especially when you get into telecom.

Big business, for all its lobbying, is often put in line by investigative reporting, public scandals and multi-million-dollar judgments in court against those who put products on the market that are dangerous to their buyers.

The Dodd Bill does very little to reduce financial risks. What it will do is make Wall Street even more the servant of bureaucrats in Washington and the political party in power. That is not in the best interests of the American people.

Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it - their shareholders would revolt at anything less.

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

Everywhere you look, there's a hunger to put the ethos by which Wall Street thrives on trial.

Wall Street is greedy, reckless and they operate illegally. That's fine. But what do you do?

People are worried about the degree to which corporate interest is starting to threaten human interest.

To say that only those businesses affected with a public interest may be regulated is but another way of stating that all those businesses which may be regulated are affected with a public interest.

Positive market incentives operating in the public interest are too few and far between, and are also up against a seemingly never-ending expansion of perverse incentives and lobbying.

Deregulation created this epidemic of greed which according to the rules of capitalism was OK. Beyond that there was criminal behaviour. There have been no repercussions and it's hard to make your peace with.

The larger the state, the more callous it becomes... the colder its heart. It is also true that the bigger the corporation, the more callous its heart. But unlike the state, corporations have competition and have no police powers.

Business is always looking to avoid the toughest norms. But some do it in a civilized way, while others push it using uncivilized, brazen methods.

Most people think companies are basically evil. They get a bad rap. And I think that's somewhat correct.

Regulators all meet with Goldman Sachs executives and employees day after day after day. They don't see the people who get tricked, the people who get cheated, the people who get fooled by the products that Goldman turns out.

Ralph Nader is the single most effective antagonist of American business.

Only the corporation that shirks from the light would have anything to fear from government. About the welfare of such corporations we need not be over-sensitive.

[The excessive] evils associated with [unregulated] competition [came about] through the shameful neglect of government to fulfill its primary function of protecting equal rights and enforcing justice.]

We can continue to have a policy in which the public interest means whatever they [broadcasters and communications companies] want it to mean in order to make money. Or we can give it real meaning.

The executive [President] could have saved the people from the appalling conditions which confront us today, if all the power of this government had been put forth to enforce the [Sherman] Anti-Trust law.

Like the government, corporations must be bound with the chains of the Constitution, and especially of the Bill of Rights.