All James Surowiecki Quotes
- The history of the Internet is, in part, a series of opportunities missed: the major record labels let Apple take over the digital-music business; Blockbuster… Acquire
- The paradox of Steve Jobs's career is that he had no interest in listening to consumers - he was famously dismissive of market research -… Actually Wanted
- The reason advertising is governed by fear, after all, is that most agencies rely on just a few clients to bring in the lion's share… Advertising
- The truth is that the United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does… Ceiling
- The value of a currency is, ultimately, what someone will give you for it - whether in food, fuel, assets, or labor. And that's always… Assets
- The Xbox 360 is the best game console ever designed. It's fast and powerful - games look as good on the 360 as on high-end… Ability
- There are certainly valid reasons for taking a company private, and it's also possible that C.E.O.s perform better when monitored by a small number of… Better
- To be sure, if you watch CNBC all day long you'll pick up some interesting news about particular companies and the economy as a whole.… All
- Tough times have always lent themselves to nativist sentiments and closed-door policies. But in the case of highly skilled immigrants, these policies are a recipe… Case
- Unlike fuel-economy standards, the most common method of reducing demand for oil over the past thirty years, a gas tax doesn't tell people what kind… Accordingly
- Unlike most government programs, Social Security and, in part, Medicare are funded by payroll taxes dedicated specifically to them. Some of the tax revenue pays… Benefits
- Until the nineteen-seventies, Western countries paid little attention to corruption overseas, and bribery was seen as an unpleasant but necessary part of doing business there.… Allowed
- What an economy really wants, after all, is not more investment per se but better investment. It wants capital to flow to companies that will… All
- What corporations fear is the phenomenon now known, rather inelegantly, as 'commoditization.' What the term means is simply the conversion of the market for a… Barriers
- When all is said and done, cheap gas is an illusion, because our reliance on gas creates a whole series of costs that aren't factored… Accidents
- When Americans are asked to rank professions in terms of honesty and ethics, insurance agents routinely end up near the bottom of the list -… Agents
- When Americans think of college these days, the first word that often comes to mind is 'debt.' And from 'debt' it's just a short hop… American
- Workers who come to the U.S. see their wages and their standard of living boosted sharply simply by crossing the border. That's a good thing,… Argument
- You might think of consumption as a fairly passive activity, but buying new products and services is actually pretty risky, at least if you value… Activity
- Sometimes even a smart crowd will make a mistake. Crowd
- The problem with venality in business is that getting outraged about it makes it easy to miss the systemic problems that venality often disguises. Business
- Sometimes you have to destroy your business in order to save it. Business
- For most Americans, work is central to their experience of the world, and the corporation is one of the fundamental institutions of American life, with… American
- Republicans like to indict Democrats as anti-corporate zealots. Anti
- You might say that economic history is the history of people learning to manage risk. Economic