Having excessive power in the hands of one country meant the fate of the world was too dependent on what happened in that one country.
Interpretation
The quote warns against the dangers of having too much power concentrated in a single country, as it poses risks to global stability.
Joseph Stiglitz highlights the significant risks associated with the concentration of power in one nation. When one country holds excessive influence, the well-being and security of the entire world can become overly reliant on its decisions and actions, potentially leading to instability and unpredictability on a global scale.
In practice
During a political debate, one might use this quote to discuss the implications of a superpower's actions on international relations.
Free migration within Europe means that countries that have done a better job at reducing unemployment will predictably end up with more than their fair share of refugees. Workers in these countries bear the cost in depressed wages and higher unemployment, while employers benefit from cheaper labor.
I don't think we can have democracies that work where most of the people are not benefiting economically, where most of the people are worried about their job security.
Let me put it very forcefully: No large economy has ever recovered from an economic downturn through austerity. It's not going to happen in the United States, and it's not going to happen in Europe.
What separates developing countries from developed countries is as much a gap in knowledge as a gap in resources.
One of the arguments I make for the failure of the euro is that, at the time it was being constructed, there was a 'neo-liberal' ideology which said that all we need to do to make this thing work is to get deficits low, keep inflation low, and take down barriers, and then everything would be fine.
Trump sees the world in terms of a zero-sum game. In reality, globalisation, if well managed, is a positive-sum force: America gains if its friends and allies - whether Australia, the E.U., or Mexico - are stronger. But Trump's approach threatens to turn it into a negative-sum game: America will lose, too.
Economic libertarians and Christian evangelicals, united by their common enemy, are strange bedfellows in today's Republican party, just as the two Georges - the archconservative Wallace and the uberliberal McGovern - found themselves in the same Democratic Party in 1972.
I am mortal. I want the nation to get used to freedom before I die.
I may find Saddam Hussein's regime abhorrent - any normal person would - but the survival of it is in his hands.
Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say 'God Save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General. The proclamation you have just heard was countersigned Malcolm Fraser, who will go down in history as Kerr's cur.
You will find that you cannot do without politicians. They are a necessary evil in this day and time. You may not like getting money from one source and spending it for another. But the thing for the school people to do is that if the politicians are going to steal, make them steal for the schools.
Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable β the art of the next best
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.