Some great quotes by John Maynard Keynes(No! Not the singer with Tool)

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   Shinkickerposted 13 years ago

   The great economist John Maynard Keynes came up with some wonderful quotes: Here's my favourite which I try to adhere to.....
   
   'When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?'
   
   
   ...and some more.......
   
   'The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.'
   
   
   'There is no harm in being sometimes wrong - especially if one is promptly found out.'
   
   
   'Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking.'
   
   
   'A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.'
   
   'Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.'
   
   
   'Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older.'
   
   
   The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.'
   
   'The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.'
   
   
   'Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.'
   
   
   'Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.'
   
   
   'For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still.'
   
   
   'I do not know which makes a man more conservative - to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.'
   
   
   'I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.'
   
   
   'Ideas shape the course of history.'
   
   
   'If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.'
   
   
   'Like Odysseus, the President looked wiser when he was seated.'
   
   'The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems - the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and behaviour and religion.'
   
   http://www.maynardkeynes.org/

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      Sooner28posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      He was an intelligent fellow for sure.

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      Deborah Brooksposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Wow what great quotes...very smart...i would like to remember these..awesome..

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2. 68

   innersmiffposted 13 years ago

   "The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens."
   
   So the only way to destroy capitalism is to steal from everybody? I knew it!
   
   His theories have destroyed economies and more importantly, liberty, and the basic premise that we are living under capitalism is false. Read these books for some sound debunking:
   
   Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
   The Law by Frederic Bastiat

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   1. 60

      Eric Newlandposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Well, it kind of makes sense in a way. The poor suffer most from inflation because they don't have assets that might increase in value to match inflation and are the last ones thought of when it comes to increasing wages to keep up with the cost of living. It is, in a fairly literal sense, a tax on the poor.
      
      So the worse inflation gets the poorer the poor get. Thus the people who cry out for socialism get listened to more.
      
      Funny how Democratic administrations tend to be marked by higher inflation rates...

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         UnnamedHaraldposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         You mean like when Reagan was president? I was able to put $20,000 in a savings account and get 20% interest for a year.

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      Shinkickerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Well he was instrumental in the formation of the Bretton Woods system which led to great prosperity in the West through the 50's and the 60's until Nixon took the US off the Gold Standard. Compare those times of a regulated World Economy with the chaos of the Credit Crunch that has erupted  due to the legacy of the disastrous Reaganomics

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      1. 60

         amillarposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         But all systems vanish up their own chuffs, in ever decreasing circles, eventually.  It’s a bit like as computers get old they pick up all sorts of useless baggage that eventually drags them to a halt.
         
         I still blame capital flight for the problems in the 70s.  Our illustrious ones would have us believe it was a ‘brain drain’, but then they would, wouldn’t they.  The mistake we, the people make, as always, is that we believe their BS. 
         
         Apparently, Iceland jails criminal bankers.  They can’t tell me ‘there’s no other way’.

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3. 61

   John Holdenposted 13 years ago

   "'Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.'"
   
   What can I say? So true.

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4. 64

   diogenesposted 13 years ago

   Was this by Keynes?
   
   "Men of low intellect talk of man's doings; those of medium intellect talk of things; but those of great intellect talk of ideas"
   
   Perhaps someone knows.

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