Kevin Hassett Quotes

Between 1857 and 1929, while regulators largely stood idle, the American economy swung through 19 national boom-and-bust gyrations that sometimes threatened to wipe out whole industries within months.

Not every business cycle has a financial crisis. Frequently they do.

Listen, I wish economic growth only went in one direction. It doesn't. There are economic downturns. They're painful, they're harmful, and they hurt families.

Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again.

I believe that the market is slowly waking up to the fact that the Federal Reserve is a clueless organization. They have no idea what they're doing. And so the confidence level of investors is diminishing, in my view.

At some risk of oversimplification, I suggest that the usual reason a business cycle turns into a monster is an overdose of government policy.

When you have a perfect free market, it's difficult to predict the future. But when you have a market that is disturbed by government manipulations and money-printing, it's impossible to make any predictions.

The euphoria around economic booms often obscures the possibility for a bust, which explains why leaders typically miss the warning signs.

There's a loss of faith in the banking system that for so long has been the backbone of prosperity and growth.

History is fickle. We know that. The good and bad come around and go around, and go around again. There are recessions and depressions and economic boom and bust.

No President has yet repealed the business cycle.

Economists are very good at saying that something cannot go on forever, but not so good at saying when it will stop.

Economic freedom is a highly desirable state -- but in bust and boom we must be prepared to face the its consequences.

As 'Austrian' business cycle theory has pointed out, any bank credit inflation sets up conditions for boom-and-bust; there is no need for prices actually to rise.

The Panic of 1819 exerted a profound effect on American economic thought. As the first great financial depression, similar to a modern expansion-depression pattern, the panic heightened interest in economic problems, and particularly those problems related to the causes and cures of depressed conditions.

The way you create deflation is you create an asset bubble.

The higher interest and higher inflation is a vicious cycle.

The 'boom-bust' cycle is generated by monetary intervention in the market, specifically bank credit expansion to business.

The bull market, rising prices, earning lots of money, make it seem as if the good days will never end. When prices are falling and there is a recession, that also feels as though it will last for ever. Politics is the same. People simply can't imagine changing circumstances.

You can't create more jobs for an economy where the vast majority of people are hesitant and even afraid to spend and buy.

Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body - the producers and consumers themselves.

I am not a monetarist, and I am not a Keynesian. On certain points I agree with each.

Debates go on to this day about what caused the Great Depression. Economics is not very good at explaining swings in economic activity.

In general, the PC's always had a fairly decent tie to GDP.

I'm happy to say I am a Harrison-Kreps-Keynesian.