Markets Quotes
This quote is often misattributed to John Maynard Keynes. See linked quote.
There was a time when American business was not particularly interested in foreign markets. The entire nation was much more isolationist then.
Standard Oil was found guilty after over 400 witnesses of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the company was broken up. However this quotation and {629196} were crucial in the decision against Standard. Very often, the defense of the successful monopolist is that the industry could not have been made successful other than the way he did it.
Most classic socialists would not agree, but Deng’s approach created the most economically successful socialist economy in history.
In October 2025 (ahead of ongoing trade negotiations), the Ontario Provincial Government (Canadian) produced a video ad distributed in the US using a voice-over of the above quote from a 1987 Ronald Reagan Presidential Radio Address. The ad uses five complete sentences from the five-minute weekly address, but they are spliced together out of sequence. Also, while the ad implies Reagan was against tariffs, it omitted the context that he was using the radio address to announce new tariffs imposed on Japan by his administration but that they should be seen as an unavoidable exception to his basic belief in free trade as the key to prosperity. He said, “our commitment to free trade is also a commitment to fair trade.” President Trump accused the Ontario government of producing a fraudulent ad and of attempting to influence the US Supreme Court as it prepares to hear arguments about the legality of Trump’s tariffs. As a result, the Trump administration terminated trade negotiations with Canada.
An unusual feature of the American governmental budgeting process is that Congress has passed a law limiting the amount of debt that the United States can maintain. When there is deficit financing, the law limiting the debt has to be changed periodically as the nation approaches the debt limit. Partisan politicians often take advantage of the fact that the debt limit must be passed and hold the passage hostage to obtaining something they want. The reality is that when Congress passed the previous budgets, they determined what the debt would have to be later. So they have already voted to exceed the budget ceiling. But the requirement of doing it in a second forum allows more pressure to be placed on the administration and the other party’s Congress members. While this process is ongoing, many people in the world are worried and often terrorized by the prospect of the debt ceiling not being passed, in which case the United States would have to default on its obligations—not pay interest, contractors, retirements, salaries, etc. Hence the admonition that the debt ceiling should never be a part of the budget negotiating process by most responsible statesmen and women. But the mist partisan of the politicians want to play politics with the debt ceiling precisely because the stakes are so high and they can get both headlines and leverage.
