James Surowiecki Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• You can't fuel real economic growth with indiscriminate credit. You can only fuel it with well-allocated, long-term investment.

  James Surowiecki

  Real, Long, Growth

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• Framing effects can be very influential, and to the degree that you can think of a task as close rather than distant, you're more likely to actually get it done.

  James Surowiecki

  Thinking, Degrees, Tasks

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

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• It's a familiar truism that at any one moment, financial markets are dominated by either fear or greed. But the healthiest markets are those that are animated by both fear and greed at the same time.

  James Surowiecki

  Fear, Greed, Financial

  James Surowiecki (2005). “The Wisdom of Crowds”, p.241, Anchor

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• We assume that good-looking people are smarter and more effective than they really are, and that homely people are the reverse.

  James Surowiecki

  People, Assuming, Looking Good

  "Linjustice". www.newyorker.com. March 5, 2012.

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• Solyndra's failure isn't a reason for the government to give up on alternative energy, any more than the failure of Pets.com during the Internet bubble means that venture capital should steer clear of tech projects.

  James Surowiecki

  Giving Up, Mean, Government

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• Now, modern economies have a very effective mechanism for deciding if salaries are really too high: it's called the free market. That's how most people's salaries are set, after all, including those of major-league baseball players and European soccer players.

  James Surowiecki

  Soccer, Baseball, Player

  "Scrimmage". www.newyorker.com. March 21, 2011.

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• Being unemployed is even more disastrous for individuals than you'd expect. Aside from the obvious harm - poverty, difficulty paying off debts - it seems to directly affect people's health, particularly that of older workers.

  James Surowiecki

  People, Debt, Poverty

  "No End in Sight". www.newyorker.com. April 30, 2012.

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• If you thought the advent of the Internet, the spread of cheap and efficient information technology, and the growing fragmentation of the consumer market were all going to help smaller companies thrive at the expense of the slow-moving giants of the Fortune 500, apparently you were wrong.

  James Surowiecki

  Moving, Technology, Giants

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• Nike used to be known as Blue Ribbon Sports. What's now Sara Lee used to be Consolidated Foods. And Exxon was once Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. These were name changes that worked. But for all the ones that do, there are 10 or 20 that don't.

  James Surowiecki

  Sports, Nike, Blue

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• To be sure, if you watch CNBC all day long you'll pick up some interesting news about particular companies and the economy as a whole. Unfortunately, to get to the useful information, you have to wade through reams of useless stuff, with little guidance on how to distinguish between the two.

  James Surowiecki

  Useless Stuff, Two, Long

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• One of the problems that exacerbates procrastination is the feeling that you have lots of different things to do and no clear sense of which matter more, when they should be done, etc.

  James Surowiecki

  Procrastination, Feelings, Different

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

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• A long-term crisis, after a certain point, no longer seems like a crisis. It seems like the way things are.

  James Surowiecki

  Long, Way, Certain

  "No End in Sight". www.newyorker.com. April 30, 2012.

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• The value of a currency is, ultimately, what someone will give you for it - whether in food, fuel, assets, or labor. And that's always and everywhere a subjective decision.

  James Surowiecki

  Giving, Decision, Fuel

  "Why Gold?". www.newyorker.com. November 29, 2004.

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• The truth is that the United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one.

  James Surowiecki

  Country, Ceilings, United States

  "Smash the Ceiling". www.newyorker.com. August 1, 2011.

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• The history of the Internet is, in part, a series of opportunities missed: the major record labels let Apple take over the digital-music business; Blockbuster refused to buy Netflix for a mere fifty million dollars; Excite turned down the chance to acquire Google for less than a million dollars.

  James Surowiecki

  Opportunity, Apples, Google

  "Groupon Clipping". www.newyorker.com. December 20 & 27, 2010.

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• Developing countries often have hypertrophied bureaucracies, requiring businesses to deal with enormous amounts of red tape.

  James Surowiecki

  Country, Tape, Developing Countries

  "Invisible Hand, Greased Palm". www.newyorker.com. May 14, 2012.

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• Steve Jobs was rare: a C.E.O. who actually had a huge impact on his company's fortunes. Contrary to corporate mythology, most C.E.O.s could be easily replaced, if not by your average Joe, then by your average executive vice-president. But Jobs genuinely earned the label of superstar.

  James Surowiecki

  Jobs, Average, Impact

  "Apple: What Happens Now?". www.newyorker.com. August 24, 2011.

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• Downsizing itself is an inevitable part of any creatively destructive economy.

  James Surowiecki

  Insightful, Marketing, Economy

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• It may be that the very qualities that help people get ahead are the ones that make them ill-suited for managing crises. It's hard to prepare for the worst when you think you're the best.

  James Surowiecki

  Thinking, People, Quality

  "In Case of Emergency". www.newyorker.com. June 13, 2005.

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• I think there is clearly a connection between free time and procrastination. The more you have of the former, all things being equal, the more likely you are to procrastinate.

  James Surowiecki

  Procrastination, Thinking, Connections

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

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• The financial crisis of 2008 was not caused by investment banks betting against the housing market in 2007. It was caused by the fact that too few investors - including all of the big investment banks - bet too heavily on the housing market in the years before 2007.

  James Surowiecki

  Years, Facts, Financial

  "The Goldman Hearings: Levin vs. Wall Street". www.newyorker.com. April 27, 2010.

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• From a social point of view, it's beneficial that homeownership encourages commitment to a given town or city. But, from an economic point of view, it's good for people to be able to leave places where there's less work and move to places where there's more.

  James Surowiecki

  Moving, Commitment, Views

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• Patrimonial capitalism's legacy is that many people see reform as a euphemism for corruption and self-dealing.

  James Surowiecki

  Self, People, Reform

  "The Tyrant Tax". www.newyorker.com. March 7, 2011.

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• Markets work best when there's lots of information available and a historical track record to go on; they excel at predicting things like horse races, election outcomes, and box-office results. But they're bad at predicting things like who will be the next Supreme Court nominee, as that depends on the whim of the president.

  James Surowiecki

  Horse, Race, Track

  "The Age of Political Risk". www.newyorker.com. May 24, 2010.

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• There are certainly valid reasons for taking a company private, and it's also possible that C.E.O.s perform better when monitored by a small number of owners in a private company rather than by the dispersed and often uninterested shareholders of a public corporation.

  James Surowiecki

  Small Numbers, Corporations, Reason

  "Private Lies". www.newyorker.com. August 28, 2006.

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