All James Surowiecki Quotes
- Real politics is messy and morally ambiguous and doesn't make for a compelling thriller. Ambiguous
- The autocracies of the Arab world have been as economically destructive as they've been politically repressive. Arab
- The challenge for capitalism is that the things that breed trust also breed the environment for fraud. Breed
- The fact that industries wax and wane is a reality of any economic system that wants to remain dynamic and responsive to people's changing tastes. Any
- The oil market is especially sensitive even to a hint of expansion or contraction in supply. Contraction
- The stock market has an insidious effect on C.E.O.s' moods, because of its impact not just on their companies but on their own bank accounts. Accounts
- Traditionally, tours were a means of promoting a record. Today, the record promotes the tour. Inspirational
- Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably smart - smarter even sometimes than the smartest people in them. Circumstances
- Wall Street has come a long way from the insider-dominated world that was blown apart by the Great Depression. Apart
- We assume that good-looking people are smarter and more effective than they really are, and that homely people are the reverse. Assume
- What the investment community does like is short-term measures designed to boost share prices. Boost
- The essence of procrastination lies in not doing what you think you should be doing, a mental contortion that surely accounts for the great psychic… Accounts
- Academics, who work for long periods in a self-directed fashion, may be especially prone to putting things off: surveys suggest that the vast majority of… Academics
- In the heart of the Great Depression, millions of American workers did something they'd never done before: they joined a union. Emboldened by the passage… Across
- Politically speaking, it's always easier to shell out money for a disaster that has already happened, with clearly identifiable victims, than to invest money in… Already Happened
- Popular as Keynesian fiscal policy may be, many economists are skeptical that it works. They argue that fine-tuning the economy is a virtually impossible task,… Argue
- Steve Jobs was rare: a C.E.O. who actually had a huge impact on his company's fortunes. Contrary to corporate mythology, most C.E.O.s could be easily… Average
- The financial crisis of 2008 was not caused by investment banks betting against the housing market in 2007. It was caused by the fact that… All
- The Internet has become a remarkable fount of economic and social innovation largely because it's been an archetypal level playing field, on which even sites… Archetypal
- The world's central banks and the International Monetary Fund still have vaults full of bullion, even though currencies are no longer backed by gold. Governments… Backed
- A consumer-finance agency is a good thing, but it would do well to teach consumers a simple lesson: if you don't understand the deal you're… Agency
- A general principle of good taxation is that similar jobs, and similar kinds of compensation, should be taxed the same way: otherwise, the government is… Compensation
- All things being equal, letting people make decisions for themselves will produce smarter outcomes, collectively, than relying on government planners. All
- Although oil is a commodity, it's still not a commodity like coffee, which, thank God, we will have with us always. At some point the… Coffee
- As technology improves, on-screen avatars look more and more like real people. When they start looking too real, though, we pull away. These almost-humans aren't… Avatars