Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.

Every corner of the public psyche is canvassed by some of the most talented citizens to see if the desire for some merchandisable product can be cultivated.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.

It is in the nature of a speculative boom that almost anything can collapse it.

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

The contented and economically comfortable have a very discriminating view of government. Nobody is ever indignant about bailing out failed banks and failed savings and loans associations. ... But when taxes must be paid for the lower middle class and poor, the government assumes an aspect of wickedness.

The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.

The happiest time of a person's life is after his first divorce.

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

There are many misfortunes that can befall an economist. The worst, by far, is to have a theory in which he devoutly believes, and which is wrong, put into practice.

There can be few fields of human endeavor in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance.

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.

Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.

We must always remember that economists make forecasts not because they know, but because they are asked to.

Where humor is concerned there are no standards -- no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.