William Vickrey Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“The insane pursuit of the holy grail of a balanced budget in the end is going to drive the economy into a depression.”

“It's insane to try to balance the budget.”

“The nominal budget is a poor indicator of the impact of government outlays and revenues.”

“This paper was one of my digressions into abstract economics.”

“I define genuine full employment as a situation where there are at least as many job openings as there are persons seeking employment, probably calling for a rate of unemployment, as currently measured, of between 1 and 2 percent.”

“If unemployment could be brought down to say 2 percent at the cost of an assured steady rate of inflation of 10 percent per year, or even 20 percent, this would be a good bargain.”

“There is no real justification for a requirement that a budget of any sort should be balanced, except as a rallying point for those who seek to hamstring government.”

“Firms would be given initial entitlements to gross markup on the basis of past performance. These entitlements would be transferable and a market in them would be developed.”

“The great increase in longevity has produced a surge in the desire to accumulate assets for retirement. It has outpaced the ability of the private sector to produce assets, so we need a larger government debt.”