People From Budapest

"Deregulation was supposed to make the economy more efficient... but instead it led to the financial crisis... and Blackboard Economists did not even see the crisis coming when it was around the corner."

"They were also disregarding the real true unemployment rate... even in January of 2016, among African Americans 16%... were unemployed... so this is not full employment... and by education, among African Americans [those who did not finish high school] 32% were unemployed. Now you know why the George Floyds get into trouble with the law. They are not able to find their place in the legal labor market. ...So this is what Marty Feldstein and Donald Trump think of [as] a good economy. Not in my view!"

"[H]ousing prices had doubled by 2005 in 10 years time, which would have made sense if incomes had also increased substantially, but they didn't."

"[H]ousehold incomes... weren't going up. You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to figure out that something's not right with that."

"Although scientists have been interested in the study of human height from a medical, biological, or anthropological point of view for centuries, economic historians became aware of the implications of quantifying al status only recently."

"The meltdown of 2008 was a wasted crisis... because the homeowners were not bailed out. The financial sector was bailed out, the banks... the bankers... but... 8 million homeowners were thrown out of their homes."

"[F]our economists have received Nobel Prizes for Behavioral economics... [T]hat should be the default model. ...Forget about rationality. That's a silly assumption."

"The Gallup poll says that half of the population is doing well, 52%... thriving, but the rest are either struggling or suffering... 44% struggling means that they have a very difficult time meeting their obligations. That's not a good economy."

"[N]utritional advantages of the were quite pronounced by the early eighteenth century. Thereafter, the height of the American population was above European norms until the mid-twentieth century, confirming the extent to which the new... environment was favorable from a human biological point of view."

"The importance of is accentuated by the debate over the course of the material standard of living during the early phases of the industrial revolution, when food consumption still accounted for as much as three-fourths of total income among the laboring classes, even in the most advanced European societies."

"In all studies without exception, the positive relationship between social status and physical stature has been consistently documented in various societies and at different times. ...[E]ven in egalitarian America, social standing affected height throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the wake of the New Deal, these effects became less pronounced as became less skewed."

"[I]f we're not able to shift our paradigms, if we are stuck in the Arrow–Debreu world, then we're going to become the neoserfs of the oligarchs. Just like Aldous Huxley predicted in his novel, a Brave New World"

"I am advocating... a new paradigm of humanistic Rawlsian economics which puts human beings at the center... and not income, not growth, not GNP..."

"Less anxiety, less insecurity and less crime. That's Capitalism with a human face, and you can read more about it in my textbook..."

"[F]ree markets, being a human invention, often become dysfunctional; they do not deserve our blind faith."

"Wealth is... political power... and that's how we got from a democracy, to an oligarchy, to a plutocracy. Economists forgot completely about the need for countervailing power... and the oligarchs have taken over..."

"[The need for [j]ustice [and morality] is innate in human beings, and mainstream economics neglects [ethics,] justice [and morality]."

"[T]he economy should minimize suffering, while enhancing human dignity and self-worth."

"[T]here are better ways to measure progress than in terms of money."

"Power is the ability to control the action or thought of others. ...The oligarchs use their power also to control the thinking. They invested heavily... to control the thinking of the population."

"[J]ustice is as important as efficiency."

"[C]hildren who are attending dysfunctional schools in dysfunctional neighborhoods, people... unable to catch their bearings in... the IT revolution and globalization, the working poor... trapped in a culture of poverty... ought not be treated like machines without feelings."

"My focus is on real human beings... rather than inanimate objects... as money or abstract concepts... which economists often substitute for the human dimension."

"Status seeking is important. Relative incomes matter... Mainstream... economists said inequality was not a problem, and that's how we got an oligarchy [and populism]."

"[W]e cannot help but... to organize our thoughts without making some fundamental assumptions... a function of our... mindset, worldview... intellectual and emotional commitments... [that] influence... ideas developed in the discipline."

"[E]conomics cannot be purged of ideology..."

"I do not believe that... income translates... into life satisfaction... particularly... statistical averages, because these hide what is going on in the lower tail of income distribution... [a] skewed... political force... manipulated by... Trumpism."

"One need not be a native utopian to be appalled by a society... [of] gross inequality..."

"We're not s. We live in a society and we're influenced by social forces, social processes, and that's not included in the DSGE models."

"[Oligarchs] are spending a lot of money on lobbies to influence government, and... the laws are made to benefit those that already are privileged."

"Greenspan and Benjamin Bernanke... ignored the evidence because they were blinded by their ideology and the infallibility of the markets. They were prisoners of their own ideology."

"If one does not subject... ideology to empirical evidence... ideology becomes dogma."

"I consider my views to be progressive, democratic, and humanitarian. ...[W]e could restructure the economy ...to improve our lives by focusing on increasing our life satisfaction instead of on income growth."

"[E]conomics—despite the extensive use of mathematics—will not be a rigorous discipline until it is based... on verifiable empirical evidence."

"[W]e should begin... economic analysis with empirical evidence instead rather than on ivory-tower theorizing."

"Pain... plays a major role in my thinking. I advocate its minimization."

"[T]he current U.S. economic system... is incapable of providing a satisfactory life to... 44% of the population. ...[I]s that good enough for a $20 trillion economy... supposedly the richest in the world?"

"[A] kinder and more just economic system is... one that is embedded in a truly democratic society that not only empowers people but enables them to live their daily lives with less uncertainty, less manipulation, less taking advantage of... weaknesses, and less fear that their lives could collapse like a house of cards. This capitalism... envisions... zero unemployment, zero inflation, zero trade deficits, and zero government deficit over the business cycle."

"[O]ur starting point should not be Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, but his Theory of Moral Sentiments... that we possess an innate empathy toward our fellow human beings. Morality and ethical principles... We ought not expunge these from the economics canon."

"[E]conomics ought to aspire to... a just society... in which compassion is as important as efficiency, if not more so."

"The growth-at-any-price perspective does not consider... distribution: economic growth will not help the destitute, the uneducated underclass, or the majority of those... unemployed."

"The purpose of any economic system ought not to be growth for its own sake, but the efficient allocation of resources. Foremost... the provision of a decent life in which output is distributed equitably, people do not need to struggle to meet their basic needs... and... realize their human potential. This means... sufficient leisure time to participate in... social, cultural, and political life."

"[R]andom allocation at the start of life cannot... be the basis of a good society."

"[I]n... 2017... 40% of the population evaluated their life as "struggling" and another 3%... "suffering.""

"Anthropometric history... has the advantage of having an abundant evidential basis beginning with the seventeenth century... This approach acknowledges... the inherent multidimensionality of the concept "" and asserts that the several dimensions might not move synchronously, and therefore they ought not to be collapsed into a single indicator..."

"was supposed to be good for the economy. It meant small government, low taxes, trickle down economics, , and all of these turned out to be bad... The slogan was to starve the beast... the government..."

"[I]n the United States... southerners were 1.5 cm taller than men of the more industrialized North, even though the per capita income was greater in the North. ...Although England had a higher per capita income... as much as 25%, its soldiers were shorter than those of the United States in the eighteenth century. A century later, Irish recruits into the Union Army were taller than soldiers born in England, although English per capital income was... higher..."

"[T]his book is dedicated to a new kind of economics that promotes Capitalism with a Human Face."

"Reagan lowered the taxes on the top bracket and that made the [top] 1%... super rich."

"Most of the models pertain to perfect competition. Forget about it! The default model should be or monopoly."