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What's the single most important thing to learn from an economics course today? What I tried to leave my students with is the view that the invisible hand is more powerful than the hidden hand. Things will happen in well-organized efforts without direction, controls, plans. That's the consensus among economists. That's the Hayek legacy.

Lawrence Summers

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Lawrence Summers
Age: 69
Born: 1954
Born: November 30
Banker
Economist
Former Undersecretary For International Affairs
Politician
Professor
Scientist
University Teacher
New Haven
Connecticut
Lawrence H. Summers
Larry Summers
Lawrence Henry Summers
Today
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Wells
Effort
Students
Efforts
Without
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Among
Hidden
Well
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Powerful
Single
Invisible
Economists
Thing
Learn
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Things
Happens
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Economist
Hands
Happen
Tried
Consensus

More quotes by Lawrence Summers

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There are idiots. Look around.
Lawrence Summers
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We are inheriting the worst financial system since the Depression. We're inheriting a situation - when people go back and study major banking crises a quarter century from now, the one that America developed in 2007 and 2008 is going to be one of those crises.
Lawrence Summers
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If you look at the history of the American capital market, there's probably no innovation more important than the idea of generally accepted accountancy principles.
Lawrence Summers
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In politics, as in poetry, it is sometimes true that it is darkest before dawn.
Lawrence Summers
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All taxes discourage something. Why not discourage bad things like pollution rather than good things like working?
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In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.
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The idea that we should be open to all ideas is very different from the supposition that all ideas are equally valid.
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With uncertainty in oil markets, a buildup of speculative pressures and the large U.S. current account deficit, there is a real possibility that Paulson's crisis-management skills will be tested.
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In this age of electronic money, investors are no longer seduced by a financial 'dance of a thousand veils.' Only hard and accurate information on reserves, current accounts, and monetary and fiscal conditions will keep capital from fleeing precipitously at the first sign of trouble.
Lawrence Summers
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Investment in girls' education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world.
Lawrence Summers
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Takeovers wouldn't cause the stock market to rise unless there is an upward reassessment of earnings (potential). People are more optimistic and confident about the future.
Lawrence Summers
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A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.
Lawrence Summers
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It's important to remember how fortunate we are as a country to have a currency and a bond market that is seen in every way as a source of strength and it's a huge responsibility for us to keep it that way.
Lawrence Summers
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Where countries have been able to carry through on their reform commitments - as in Korea, Thailand and the Philippines - results are starting to come in the form of lower interest rates, new investment and increased growth.
Lawrence Summers
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I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to it.
Lawrence Summers
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When I look out the window at my backyard, I can't think of anything interesting to ask. I mean, it's green, it's growing-but nothing occurs to me that any concentrated effort of thought could possibly enlighten. Whereas in economic, statistical, or mathematical kinds of things, I can think lots of questions.
Lawrence Summers
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Start with the idea that you can't repeal the laws of economics. Even if they are inconvenient.
Lawrence Summers
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Global capital markets pose the same kinds of problems that jet planes do. They are faster, more comfortable, and they get you where you are going better. But the crashes are much more spectacular.
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I have always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted.
Lawrence Summers
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It used to be said that when the U.S. sneezed, the world caught a cold. The opposite is equally true today.
Lawrence Summers