The shortcomings of economics are not original error but uncorrected obsolescence. The obsolescence has occurred because what is convenient has becom… - John Kenneth Galbraith

This view that the action of the Federal Reserve authorities in 1927 was responsible for the speculation and collapse which followed has never been seriously shaken. There are reasons why it is attractive. It is simple, and it exonerates both the American people and the economic system from substantial blame... Yet the explanation obviously assumes that people will always speculate if only they can get the money to finance it. Nothing could be farther from the case. There were times before and there has been long periods since when credit was plentiful and cheap—far cheaper than in 1927-29—and when speculation was negligible. Nor was speculation out of control after 1927, except that it was beyond the reach of men who did not want in the least to control it. The explanation is a tribute only to a recurrent preference, in economic matters, for formidable nonsense.

La qualifica più comune di chi fa previsioni in campo economico consiste non già nel sapere, ma nel non sapere di non sapere. Il suo grande vantaggio è che tutte le previsioni, giusta o sbagliate che siano, vengono rapidamente dimenticate.

Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man's greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. Over all history it has oppressed nearly all people in one of two ways: either it has been abundant and very unreliable, or reliable and very scarce.