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Stripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes.

Alan Greenspan

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Alan Greenspan
Age: 98
Born: 1926
Born: March 6
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More quotes by Alan Greenspan

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If I've made myself clear, I've misspoken.
Alan Greenspan
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It's a bubble. It has to have intrinsic value. You have to really stretch your imagination to infer what the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is. I haven't been able to do it. Maybe somebody else can.
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But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?
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I love to play tennis and golf, listen to music, watch baseball and root for the Redskins.
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As long as we issue fiat currency, I see no alternative to a legal tender law.
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Protectionism will do little to create jobs and if foreigners retaliate, we will surely lose jobs.
Alan Greenspan
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I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I've said.
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The need for values is inbred. Their content is not.
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We will have more crises and none of them will look like this because no two crises have anything in common except human nature.
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Indeed, better risk management may be the only truly necessary element of success in banking.
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Well, you probably will always believe there should be laws against fraud, and I don't think there is any need for a law against fraud.
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In general, corruption tends to exist whenever governments have favors to extend, or something to sell.
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I came to a stark realization: chronic surpluses could be almost as destabilizing as chronic deficits.
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If you think you understand what I am saying you do not understand what I am saying.
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We cannot rule out a situation in which a preemptive policy tightening becomes necessary, ... Such caution seems especially warranted with regard to the sharp rise in equity prices during the past two years. These gains have obviously raised questions of sustainability.
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[Republicans] swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.
Alan Greenspan
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If I say something which you understand fully in this regard, I probably made a mistake.
Alan Greenspan
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Regulation - which is based on force and fear - undermines the moral base of business dealings. It becomes cheaper to bribe a building inspector than to meet his standards of construction. Protection of the consumer by regulation is thus illusory.
Alan Greenspan
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Now, I only play very occasionally, and in fact, more piano than clarinet or sax.
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Any informed borrower is simply less vulnerable to fraud and abuse.
Alan Greenspan