24 Quotes by Robert Solow

Given the track record of the Bush administration, he's done all right by the Fed. But with these next two vacancies, I'd like to see him bring in some people with the capacity to think independently about economics.

Growth theory did not begin with my articles of 1956 and 1957, and it certainly did not end there. Maybe it began with 'The Wealth of Nations'; and probably even Adam Smith had predecessors.

well-functioning markets have no innate tendency to promote excellence in any form. They offer no resistance to forces making for a descent into cultural barbarity or moral depravity.

We have fluctuations all the time, business cycles, and they come about in various ways, but normally what sets them off is some reduction in the willingness of our population, our businesses, and foreigners to buy.

Everything reminds Milton Friedman of the money supply. Well, everything reminds me of sex, but I keep it out of the paper.

The wealth-income ratio in the United States has always been lower than in Europe. The main reason in the early years was that land values bulked less in the wide open spaces of North America. There was, of course, much more land, but it was very cheap.

The key thing about wealth in a capitalist economy is that it reproduces itself and usually earns a positive net return.

infants typically toiled their way to an early death in the pits and mills of the Black Country.

Investors are worried that something is going to blow up tomorrow -- they just think it's a crazy world.