Businesspeople From The United States

"[May] twelfth was a day I had hoped would never come; Bob Rubin was returning to private life. I believed he had been the best and most important Treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton in the early days of our Republic. Bob had also been the first head of the National Economic Council. In both positions he had played a decisive role in our efforts to restore economic growth and spread its benefits to more Americans, to prevent and contain financial crisis abroad, and to modernize the international financial system to deal with a global economy in which more than one trillion dollars crossed national borders every day."

"Our political system is in terrible shape. And that's not a partisan comment, though I do think Trump is doing just immense damage to our country, in his economic policies and his actions. But in neither party are we talking about a lot of what we need to talk about."

"With its underlying principles of free expression and academic freedom, the university system is one of the nation’s great strengths. It is not to be taken for granted. Undermining higher education would harm all Americans, weakening our country and making us less able to confront the many challenges we face."

"We’ve spoken to many leaders in business and finance who, when it comes to economic policy, are open to the premise that Mr. Trump is a normal presidential candidate. We strongly disagree. The two of us have been involved in business, government and policy for many years, with more than a century of experience between us. We’ve worked with elected officials and business leaders across the ideological spectrum... When it comes to economic policy, Mr. Trump is not a remotely normal candidate. A second Trump term would pose enormous risks to our economy."

"Markets go up, markets go down."

"Some argue that many dire predictions raised at the start of Mr. Trump’s term did not come to pass. But he has expressed regret that his term was less radical than he would have liked — and has promised that his second term would be nothing like the first. From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Trump, while extreme in many respects, was constrained by key appointees who came from the traditional conservative establishment and by the need to appeal to the business community as he sought re-election. If he wins this November, he’s made clear that he’ll choose appointees who will be submissive to him, and he will have no looming re-election campaign providing an incentive to curb his most extreme impulses."

"In my experience, many leaders harbor deep concerns about Mr. Trump's lawlessness, weaponization of the government, and interference in markets. They refrain from public criticism not because they find nothing to criticize but because they're intimidated."

"Free markets can't be separated from other freedoms Americans have cherished and sometimes taken for granted. Due process, the rule of law, free speech, a free press and honest elections have been among our most powerful advantages in the global economy."

"When the business community and our leaders cease to speak out on matters of public concern, they turn their backs on the foundations of our country's success."

"Mr. Trump would also take unprecedented action to diminish the independence of the Federal Reserve, pressuring it to set interest rates for his short-term political gain rather than the long-term health of the economy... Such actions could do great damage to our markets and to our economy by politicizing Federal Reserve Board interest rate decisions and undermining the broader credibility of the Fed."

"Over the past year, President Trump has taken unprecedented actions to assert federal control over our economy and undermine the constitutional system on which that economy depends. In response, many leaders in the private sector—as well as in philanthropy, media, law and academia—have responded not with criticism, but with acquiescence and accommodation."

"In the United States, refusal to confront a longer-term fiscal threat is not new."

"If you look at the numbers over the last few years and you look at the growth we've had, which has been very good growth, some fair portion of that is because of immigration and the increase in the labor force."

"I think they [tariffs] create a very serious risk of inflation, not only because prices of imported goods will be higher, but domestic producers will be able to raise prices because their competitors' prices will be higher. But also, I think it's a substantial threat to growth because it can adversely affect productivity since you can no longer have access to whatever is the most efficient producer of goods and services. And… there's a very serious risk of retaliation."

"The challenges of opposing authoritarianism can be great. But the ever greater consequences, if authoritarianism is left to continue, can be many times more severe."

"Nearly every element of Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda would create great risk of economic harm. In aggregate, there is a high likelihood that his agenda would lead to chaos and unpredictability, including global instability, in that way reducing investment and business activity. Meanwhile, inflation would be increased by tariffs, immigration restrictions and larger fiscal deficits. Some may feel that we made it through one Trump term and are thus likely to make it through another. But a more apt analogy is that after we survived one round of economic Russian roulette, Donald Trump is asking us to take another spin — only this time with many more bullets in the chamber. That would be a very dangerous game."

"Unconventional monetary policy and stimulus can be part of a successful economic programme for a period of time. But they are no substitute for fiscal discipline, public investment and structural reform."

"We have an imperative need to address our unsustainable longer-term fiscal trajectory with sound economic policies. Few elected officials want to face this fact, but, at the very least, they should not make matters worse."

"Moments after being sworn in as Treasury Secretary in 1995, I stood in the Oval Office to advise the president on how to address the threat posed to us by the unfolding economic crisis in Mexico, an experience repeated two years later during the Asian financial crisis. I know what it's like to recommend complex responses with no certainty of success."

"Internalizing the core tenet of Professor Demos’s teaching — weighing risk and analyzing odds and trade-offs — was central to everything I did professionally in the decades ahead in finance and government."

"Some people I’ve encountered in various phases of my career seem more certain about everything than I am about anything."

"The only place people find fulfillment is within themselves. And too often, that's the last place they look."

"For our country to succeed economically, our market-based system must function alongside strong, effective government. Strong, effective government, in turn, requires a functioning democratic process."

"What's so sad to me… is we [the United States] have such tremendous strengths and so many advantages. And I think the damage we're doing is very substantial. Attacking our research, attacking science and basic research, attacking our universities, immigration policy that makes no sense whatsoever."

"The facts are very, very disturbing because it looks like he was unhinged at times. And that's scary in an American president....Look, a lot of the things Donald Trump did as president I supported. But this presents a human being that is not fully in control of himself, let alone the country. If this is all accurate, then it's very, very disturbing."

"If the FBI and the CIA and 14 other intelligence agencies had been talking to each other, most of us feel that the attack would have been prevented."

"Farther down the line, in the middle of a gravelly flat near the runway's end, I approached another fighting hole, careful to come from the rear and listen for the verbal challenge. It was an assault rocket team, and there should have been two Marines awake. In the moonlight, I saw three heads silhouetted against the sky. I slid down into the hole with a rustle of cascading dirt. General Mattis leaned against a wall of sandbags, talking with a sergeant and a lance corporal. That was real leadership. No one would have questioned Mattis if he'd slept eight hours each night in a private room, to be woken each morning by an aide who ironed his uniforms and heated his MREs. But there he was, in the middle of a freezing night, out on the lines with his Marines."

"General Mattis arrived a few minutes later, clearing the atmosphere like a thunderstorm on a humid afternoon. Mattis is kinetic. The troops who knew him from Afghanistan loved him, and everyone else loved him by reputation. Stars on a collar can throw a barrier between leader and led, but Mattis' rank only contributed to his hero status. Here was an officer, a general, who understood the Marines, who, in fact, was one of them. I caught Wynn's eye and leaned toward him to whisper a question: "You know what Mattis's call sign is?" He shook his head. "Chaos. How fucking cool is that?""

"I live in the moment. The past is the past and I can't change anything about it and the future is all in my imagination. So, therefore, the only thing I can deal with is sitting here right now …by sticking to that and being totally transparent, it kind of tells you who I am and what I'm about. And I think that for me is the essence of life. That's the one thing."

"Follow your passion. Follow your dreams. I know that sounds fluffy, but it's not crazy - I think it's very realistic. If you're doing something that you enjoy doing and you're pursuing your passion, that's the best chance you have of your dreams coming true."

"I started out as a canvasser…I walked the streets, I got listings, I called landlords, and I made it happen. And you know what? That mentality has never left me and I'm still a canvasser of new opportunities, constantly trolling for new business and I pass that on to my people every single day."

"I always thought that luck was a result of hard work, and the only way you're going to get lucky is if you're at the desk on Friday afternoon in August and the phone rings and you get the call and it's a developer who's building a project that needs your help. If you're working, if you're there, if you're in the game, if you stay engaged and involved, that's how people get lucky. Luck doesn't just happen to people. They have to make it happen. And it's in everybody's power, I think, to get lucky."

"Look, I'm a New Yorker. I'm in your face and I'm hands-on…for me, the word tomorrow is not in my vocabulary. I need things done right away. I don't like procrastination. I am very hands-on. I get in people's faces. That's how I run this business."

"I have kids and they're millennials, so I see their patterns. I see how they get their news, I see how they communicate, I see how they socialize and do their shopping and eating habits and patterns. Being an owner of a company and a manager with an enormous amount of millennials in the workforce, my kids have helped me realize how different and how times have changed and how we have to adapt. I find the millennials to be fascinating."

"I remember everything…if you remember everything, then it's easy to pass on what you've learned and relate those experiences to other people…Be a sponge, remember everything and articulate it accurately."

"Be extremely diligent, stay focused, don’t get off task, and don't forget what you do. If you're in retail leasing, don't try to sell hotels. Don't try to lease some industrial real warehouse in the Bronx. Don't try to do some office deal. You're in retail. Stay focused in retail…Focus on what you do best."

"I don't think we would have gotten that across the finish line without all of her hard work. I think without her it wouldn't have happened, so she deserves a ton of credit for that."

"Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do...He’s slashed and burned the federal government to make room for a giant tax cut for billionaires like himself. I’ve sworn an oath to this country, I’ve flown in combat, I served in the Navy for 25 years. It appears to me the oath that Elon Musk stands by is the oath to billionaires to make their lives easier, not the American people, not veterans. He’s not a serious guy. He should go back to building rockets."

"We salute Commander Mark Kelly and his contributions to NASA as an extremely accomplished member of the astronaut corps and the final commander of the space shuttle Endeavour. . . . We deeply respect his achievements and his decision to focus on his family. We continue to send out our thoughts and prayers to Mark and his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, as she makes a remarkable recovery. We know that Mark will continue to do great things for his country no matter what he chooses to do next."

"There's no segment of the real estate market that's more exciting, creative, and forward-thinking than retail."

"All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it."

"If I had to say one guy — I really don’t know him, very superficially — but if I were like betting the Kentucky Derby and I saw this 12-to-1 horse and I said, ‘Yeah, I want to get a price,’ I’d take JB Pritzker,"

"The best way to spot an idiot: Look for the person who is cruel. Let me explain. When we see someone who doesn't look like us, or sound like us, or act like us, or love like us, or live like us, the first thought that crosses almost everyone's brain is rooted in either fear or judgement or both. That's evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things that we aren't familiar with. In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brain to travel a different pathway."

"Carrying a loaded gun into a community 20 miles from your home and shooting unarmed citizens is fundamentally wrong."

"Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges. This may be a surprising assessment because somewhere along the way in the last few years, our society has come to believe that weaponized cruelty is part of some well-thought out Master plan. Cruelty is seen by some as an adroit cudgel to gain power. Empathy and kindness are considered weak. Many important people look at the vulnerable only as rungs on a ladder to the top. I'm here to tell you that when someone's path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their own instinctual fears. And so their thinking and problem solving will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades. Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true. The kindest person in the room is often the smartest."

"I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame."

"As governor, I will ensure that all internet traffic is treated equally, so that everyone can continue to use the internet to grow their businesses, further their education, and enjoy the freedom of expression."

"The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame."

"I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems."

"I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next?"