Quotes by Adam Davidson - Page 1

In poor countries, the rich and powerful crush the poor and powerless.
Adam Davidson /
Crush
Poor Countries
Powerless
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Art is often valuable precisely because it isn't a sensible way to make money.
Adam Davidson /
Sensible
Valuable
Precisely
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Most rich countries have reported increases in happiness as they become richer.
Adam Davidson /
Rich Countries
Increases
Reported
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The economics profession advances by one confusing financial disaster at a time.
Adam Davidson /
Confusing
Disaster
Profession
Advances
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The so-called skills gap is really a gap in education, and that affects all of us.
Adam Davidson /
Skills
Affects
Gap
So-Called
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Economics is not a discipline that comes to correct answers - economies are too complex.
Adam Davidson /
Answers
Discipline
Too
Complex
Correct
Economies
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When you cover the economy as a reporter, there's one part of the job that is always easy: finding economists who disagree.
Adam Davidson /
Disagree
Cover
Reporter
Economists
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We can fight over what the taxation levels should be, but the tax system should be very, very simple and not distortionary.
Adam Davidson /
Levels
Tax System
Tax
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Lots of countries have great constitutions, but their leaders have a practice of ignoring the rules whenever they feel like it.
Adam Davidson /
Constitutions
Ignoring
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The Internet is, among other things, a massive, chaotic marketplace. Too much information, it turns out, is a lot like no information.
Adam Davidson /
Chaotic
Marketplace
Massive
Turns
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Unlike physics, economists don't settle things. There seems to be plenty of room for different conclusions that are still accepted in the academy.
Adam Davidson /
Accepted
Physics
Plenty
Conclusions
Economists
Unlike
Settle
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Whenever you hear news about jobless claims or the unemployment rate, you should translate that in your mind to one simple phrase: Stay in school.
Adam Davidson /
Claims
Rate
Unemployment
Unemployment Rate
Phrase
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The economy works best when better ideas win out over worse ideas, harder work wins out over less work, when it's a fair fight in the marketplace.
Adam Davidson /
Marketplace
Wins
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Much of what we consider the American way of life is rooted in the period of remarkably broad, shared economic growth, from around 1900 to about 1978.
Adam Davidson /
Economic Growth
Rooted
American Way
Broad
Remarkably
Shared
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When you see a merger between two giants in a declining industry, it can look like the financial version of a couple having a baby to save a marriage.
Adam Davidson /
Giants
Having A Baby
Version
Declining
Merger
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One of the great political and economic challenges of our time is figuring out the balance between wealth that benefits society and wealth that distorts.
Adam Davidson /
Benefits
Our Time
Wealth
Time Society Great
Figuring
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Poverty is not the simple result of bad geography, bad culture, bad history. It's the result of us: of the ways that people choose to organize their societies.
Adam Davidson /
Geography
Organize
Poverty
Societies
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'The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movement in Iraq,' by Hanna Batatu. Few may wish to take on this massive, obscure work, but it changed my life, and I love it.
Adam Davidson /
Changed
Massive
Movement
Obscure
Revolutionary
Wish
Life Love Work
Classes
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Economics is all about consumption. People either spend money now or they use financial instruments - like bonds, stocks and savings accounts - so they can spend more later.
Adam Davidson /
Accounts
Consumption
Economics
Instruments
Savings
Savings Accounts
Money People More
Bonds
Stocks
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Perhaps concentrated wealth will inspire a nation of innovative problem-solvers. But if the view of many economists is right - that it sometimes discourages innovation - then we should worry.
Adam Davidson /
Innovation
Inspire
Wealth
Concentrated
Economists
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If large numbers of people believe they have no shot at a better life in the future, they will work less hard and generate fewer new ideas and businesses. The economy, as a whole, will be poorer.
Adam Davidson /
Better Life
Fewer
Large Numbers
New Ideas
Numbers
Life Future Work
Businesses
Generate
Life Work Future
Poorer
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A healthy economy is largely a result of a reasonable balance between consumption today and consumption deferred, and it's pretty clear that balance has been ridiculously out of whack for a while.
Adam Davidson /
Consumption
Reasonable
Deferred
Healthy Economy
Largely
Ridiculously
Whack
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Like a bottle of wine or a promising college quarterback turning pro, C.E.O.'s are similar to what economists call experience goods: you commit to a price long before you know if they're worth it.
Adam Davidson /
Commit
Goods
Quarterback
Wine
Worth It
Bottle
Turning
Economists
Pro
Promising
Similar
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The American dream always meant that anybody willing to put in a hard day's work could make a decent living. That's just not true anymore for people without at least some post-high school education.
Adam Davidson /
American Dream
Decent
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To put it simply and a bit crudely: Our economy is demanding more well-educated workers than our schools are providing. To attract this scarce resource, communities have to offer more than just jobs.
Adam Davidson /
Providing
Scarce
Well Educated
Workers
Attract
Communities
Demanding
Resource
Schools
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It makes me happy to think that this world of art-as-investment is a minuscule fraction of the art world overall. Most people who create, trade and own art do it for a much simpler reason. They just like it.
Adam Davidson /
Art World
Art World Me
Fraction
Overall
Simpler
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The world I want to live in is a world where everybody is a bit more uncertain about their arguments and is a bit more open to other people's arguments. I think that we can engage ideas without ad hominem attacks.
Adam Davidson /
Uncertain
Where World People
World People Live
Ad
Attacks
World Live People
Engage
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A rule of thumb: If the company you work for provides a product or service that's pretty much the same as what was offered last year and a few years before that, it might be time to start looking for something new.
Adam Davidson /
Last Year
Something New
Work Time Service
Offered
Thumb
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What we want as an economy is companies and people, you know, working hard to come up with creative ways to be more productive. We don't want companies and people working hard to lobby government for special tax cuts.
Adam Davidson /
Tax Cuts
Tax
Government People Know
Creative Ways
Cuts
Lobby
Working Hard
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Holiday binge-buying has deep roots in American culture: department stores have been associating turkey gluttony with its spending equivalent since they began sponsoring Thanksgiving Day parades in the early 20th century.
Adam Davidson /
Thanksgiving
American Culture
Department
Department Stores
Gluttony
Holiday
Parades
Roots
Spending
Equivalent
Sponsor
Turkey
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We tend in this country to talk about Democrats and Republicans, and think there's little group over there called Independents that's maybe 2%. That is not the case, and it has not been the case for most of modern American history.
Adam Davidson /
American History
Democrats
Democrats And Republicans
Republicans
Independents
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A majority of Americans support Social Security and Medicare, a progressive tax system and a government that regulates business in the public interest, but most share deep skepticism about the government's ability to do all this well.
Adam Davidson /
Majority
Public Interest
Skepticism
Social Security
Tax System
Tax
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If an alien with an accounting degree touched down in America, it might conclude that we're a weird cult that spends 11 months living frugally and four crazy weeks buying tons of stuff we don't need. It wouldn't be entirely wrong, either.
Adam Davidson /
Accounting
Buying
Cult
Touched
Alien
Weeks
Conclude
Degree
Entirely
Tons
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The cardinal rule of taxation is that whatever you put a levy on, you'll inevitably get less of. Taxing corporate activity means less investing, less hiring, fewer jobs and a smaller economy, which hurts the rich, the poor and the middle class alike.
Adam Davidson /
Activity
Corporate
Fewer
Hiring
Investing
Middle Class
Taxation
Rich Poor Middle Class
Alike
Cardinal
Hurts
Inevitably
Smaller
Taxing
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Happiness statistics may be most valuable in smaller, local discussions. Understanding how different sorts of programs affect the well-being of citizens would be enormously helpful to a mayor choosing between building a new bridge or offering a tax cut.
Adam Davidson /
Citizens
Offering
Statistics
Understanding
Valuable
Well Being
Tax
Affect
Bridge
Choosing
Cut
Discussions
Programs
Local
Mayor
Smaller
Tax Cut
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Happiness quantification sounds a bit wishy-washy, sure, and through a series of carefully administered surveys across the globe, economists and psychologists have certainly confronted a fair number of sticky issues around how to measure, and even define, happiness.
Adam Davidson /
Sticky
Surveys
Carefully
Confronted
Define
Economists
Measure
Psychologists
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I'm not the first to admit that raising a child in Park Slope, Brooklyn, can bear an embarrassing resemblance to the TV show 'Portlandia.' My wife and I try to have some ironic distance from the culture of organic, chemical-free parenting, but we're often participants.
Adam Davidson /
Parenting
Brooklyn
Distance
Embarrassing
Ironic
Resemblance
Admit
Bear
Organic
Park
Slope
Tv Show
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The America that I think most Americans would want, most economists on the right or left would want, is one in which a smart, ambitious, hardworking person without a huge amount of resources has a pretty good shot, in the end, of beating out a less smart, less ambitious, less hardworking rich person.
Adam Davidson /
Hardworking
Resources
Rich Person
Beating
Economists
Huge Amount
In The End
Pretty Good
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What there is no dispute about is whether or not China is a currency manipulator. They are a currency manipulator. They actively intervene every single day to keep the value of their currency less than it would be against the dollar than if it floated freely. We think. Even China barely disputes that.
Adam Davidson /
China
Currency
Actively
Barely
Dispute
Dollar
Every Single Day
Freely
Intervene
Single Day
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There is such a polarized discussion of economics among people like analysts, columnists, bloggers; often, they end up just saying that views other than their own should not even be discussed. I find that frustrating. There is no intellectual progress without considering lots and lots of different views.
Adam Davidson /
Bloggers
Considering
Frustrating
Views
Analyst
Discussed
Lots And Lots
Polarized
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Hating Wall Street is an American tradition that dates back even to the days when Thomas Jefferson cursed that money lover Alexander Hamilton. And for centuries, the complaints about it have largely stayed the same: 'It does nothing! It creates chaos! It's a parasite that sucks hardworking Americans dry!'
Adam Davidson /
American Tradition
Chaos
Complaints
Cursed
Dry
Hamilton
Hardworking
Tradition
Wall
Alexander
Sucks
Centuries
Lover
Creates
Dates
Hating
Jefferson
Largely
Parasite
Stayed
Thomas
Wall Street
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If the American government can't stand behind the dollar, the world's benchmark currency, then the global financial system will very likely enter a new era in which there is much less trade and much less economic growth. It would be, by most accounts, the largest self-imposed financial disaster in history.
Adam Davidson /
Accounts
American Government
Currency
Disaster
Economic Growth
Financial System
New Era
Benchmark
Dollar
Largest
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'Reinventing the Bazaar,' by John McMillan, is a great and fun introduction to the wild variety and importance of markets throughout history and around the world. I finally understood how a Middle Eastern souk actually works economically and how to compare that to modern-day telecom-spectrum auctions. I love that book.
Adam Davidson /
Compare
Eastern
Importance
Introduction
Modern Day
Reinventing
Understood
Variety
Love History Great
Wild
Middle Eastern
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The idea of confidence, of the emotions of the population, is an incredibly important one in economics. John Maynard Keynes called it 'animal spirit.' And if people are feeling generally good about the future, they're more likely to spend money, to start new companies; companies are more likely to hire people, make investments.
Adam Davidson /
Animal
Population
Hire
Incredibly
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I don't think that much change comes from economists. I think it comes more from political realities. Probably the two giants of the 20th century, who actually did shift government policy in the U.S. and around the world, were John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. I don't see anybody in our system who is at that level of influence.
Adam Davidson /
Giants
Influence
Milton
Policy
Change Government Political
Economists
John
Realities
Shift
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Adam Davidson Quotes - Page 1

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