In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.
Ben BernankeRead
I've never been on Wall Street. And I care about Wall Street for one reason and one reason only because what happens on Wall Street matters to Main Street.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the connection between the financial markets and the everyday experiences of ordinary people.
Ben Bernanke highlights the significant influence of Wall Street, which represents the financial sector, on Main Street, symbolizing the general public and their livelihoods. He expresses that, although he may not engage directly with Wall Street, he understands that its activities and performance have far-reaching consequences for the economy and the well-being of everyday individuals.
In practice
Use this quote during a financial literacy workshop to highlight the importance of understanding economic systems.
In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.
Education - lifelong education for everyone - from toddlers to workers well advanced in their careers - is indeed an excellent investment for individuals and society as a whole.
Nobody likes to fail but failure is an essential part of life and of learning. If your uniform isn't dirty, you haven't been in the game.
Life is amazingly unpredictable; any 22-year-old who thinks they know where they will be in 10 years, much less in 30, is simply lacking imagination.
The benefit of appointing a hawkish central banker is the increased inflation-fighting credibility that such an appointment brings.
Economics is a highly sophisticated field of thought that is superb at explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong. About the future, not so much.
The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.
The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.
The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of the recession because that would just suck up and take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole.
If you paid Americans a living wage, they would be able to pay for products made by Americans in America.
The 'boom-bust' cycle is generated by monetary intervention in the market, specifically bank credit expansion to business.
The perennial conviction that those who work hard and play by the rules will be rewarded with a more comfortable present and a stronger future for their children faces assault from just about every direction. That great enemy of democratic capitalism, economic inequality, is real and growing.
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