"In the preface to the reissue of Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Frank Knight makes the penetrating observation that under the conditions envisaged above the velocity of circulation would become infinite and so would the price level. This is perhaps an over-dramatic way of saying that nobody would hold money, and it would become a free good to go into the category of shell and other things which once served as money. We should expect too that it would not only pass out of circulation, but it would cease to be used as a conventional numeraire in terms of which prices are expressed. Interest bearing money would emerge. Of course, the above does not happen in real life, precisely because uncertainty, contingency needs, non-synchronization of revenues and outlay, transaction frictions, etc., etc., all are with us. But the abstract special case analyzed above should warn us against the facile assumption that the average levels of the structure of interest rates are determined solely or primarily by these differential factors. At times they are primary, and at other times, such as the twenties in this country, they may not be. As a generalization I should hazard the hypothesis that they are likely to be of great importance in an economy in which there is a “quasi-zero" rate of interest. I think by this hypothesis one can explain many of the anomalies of the United States money market in the thirties."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesJews from the United StatesEconomists from the United StatesNobel laureates in EconomicsPeople from Gary
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ch. 5 : Theory of Consumer’s Behavior
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Samuelson
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Paul Samuelson
Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009) was an American economist. He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.
119 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Paul Samuelson →
Related Quotes
"The General Theory caught most economists under the age of 35 with the unexpected virulence of a disease first attack…"
"Herein lies the secret of the General Theory. It is a badly written book, poorly organized; any layman who, beguiled …"
"Just as Hegel is said to have understood his philosophy for the first time when he read its French translation, Vilfr…"
"I was lucky to enter economics in 1932. Analytical economics was poised for its take-off. I faced a lovely vacuum tha…"
"The existence of analogies between central features of various theories implies the existence of a general theory whi…"
"The general method involved may be very simply stated. In cases where the equilibrium values of our variables can be …"
"Figure 12-6 pulls together in a simplified way the main elements of income determination. Without saving and investme…"
"I think the acceptance of "mathematical expectation of utility" or its "arithmetic mean" was an unthinking carryover …"
"Needless to say, the partial equilibrium assumptions involved in the domestic demand schedules and the neglect of agg…"
"Science is not art. Yet, despite the lack of complete identity between art and science, there is much in common among…"