Paul Krugman Quotes, Thoughts and images

Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power.

Debt is one person's liability, but another person's asset.

Middle-class societies don't emerge automatically as an economy matures, they have to be CREATED through political action.

In our country, learned ignorance is on the rise.

There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no libertarians in financial crises.

The federal government is basically an insurance company with an army.

We should try to create the society each of us would want if we didn't know in advance who we'd be.

If you want to understand opposition to climate action, follow the money.

The great thing about fiscal policy is that it has a direct impact and doesn't require you to bind the hands of future policymakers.

Simple doesn't mean stupid. Thinking that it does, does.

The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century ... has taken place via globalization.

Outrageous fiscal mendacity is neither historically normal nor bipartisan. It’s a modern Republican thing.

Economics is not a morality play.

If you're doing your job right, some substantial group of people [is] going to be mad at you.

Economists don't usually make good speculators, because they think too much.

The real danger with debt is what happens if lots of people decide, or are forced, to pay it off at the same time.

For most Americans, economic growth is a spectator sport.

As I've often said, you can shop online and find whatever you're looking for, but bookstores are where you find what you weren't looking for.

Sometimes economists in official positions give bad advice; sometimes they give very, very bad advice; and sometimes they work at the OECD.

The goal, in the end, is not to win elections. The goal is to change society.

The science fiction world has a lot of people doing seriously imaginative thinking.

You really have to go searching desperately to find any contemporary examples of good, old-fashioned runaway inflation.

I think so long as fossil fuels are cheap, people will use them and it will postpone a movement towards new technologies.

I've always believed in expansionary monetary policy and if necessary fiscal policy when the economy is depressed.

The problem with digital books is that you can always find what you are looking for but you need to go to a bookstore to find what you weren't looking for.

If Europe’s example is any guide, here are the two secrets of coping with expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don’t drive them too much.

When depression economics prevails, the usual rules of economic policy no longer apply: virtue becomes vice, caution is risky and prudence is folly.

The public has no idea that the deficit has been falling like a stone.

The habit of disguising ideology as expertise has created a deficit of legitimacy.

Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups.

Can we break the machine that is imposing right-wing radicalism on the United States? The scariest part is that the media is part of that machine.

Default is not in our stars but in ourselves.

The French, unfortunately, actually believe what they say, and that has been very destructive.

Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k).

If you are a good economist, a virtuous economist, you are reborn as a physicist. But if you are an evil, wicked economist, you are reborn as a sociologist.