Quotes about Economic Dishonesty

Adam Smith

For in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins.

This is a very interesting quotation in that it is one of the first suggestions that money debasement can be caused by a lack of trust and confidence in the government rather than the percentage of precious metals in the coins.

Ghanbar Naderi

People have to cooperate. Many people and traders here try to evade tax. They don’t want to pay tax so they smuggle goods and services into this country to make more money—as much as possible. The also manipulate the foreign currency market.

Anacharsis

The market is a place set apart where men may deceive each other.

Even today, the ethics of the business world are much looser than ethics of most other areas. He was considered one of the 7 Great Greek Sages, although he was not Greek by birth.

Henry Hazlitt

In practice [monetary management] is merely a high-sounding euphemism for continuous currency debasement. It consists of constant lying in order to support constant swindling. Instead of automatic currencies based on gold, people are forced to take managed currencies based on guile. Instead of precious metals they hold paper promises whose value falls with every bureaucratic whim. And they are suavely assured that only hopelessly antiquated minds dream of returning to truth and honesty and solvency and gold.

Karl Marx

It is in this sense that Franklin says, "war is robbery, commerce is generally cheating.

Bernardo Davanzati

Remove then all the thoughts of debasing the Coin, and pluck up the Seeds of this Mischief. Let not the Mint gain by any means; for truly it is a most scandalous business to lessen other people’s metal that is sent thither to be coined.

When gold and silver were used to make coins, there were dozens of schemes to cheat people. Many of these would be implemented by the official mints (makers of coins) often with the connivance of the ruler who would often get a cut. Davanzati warned princes against debasing the coins on moral as well as pragmatic grounds.

Catharine Beecher

The people of this nation are eminently a trafficking people; and the present standard of honesty, as to trade and debts, is very low, and every year seems sinking still lower.

Rush Limbaugh

The left has done a very admirably good job of demonizing the private sector, where what happens? Cheating, lying, dishonesty, destroying the planet, killing customers, starving people. And they've positioned themselves, of course, as the great compassionate last hope. They're the ones who truly care. We're not supposed to examine the results of their efforts, which are always dismal and always fail. We're supposed to examine their good intentions.

Economic Dishonesty Quotes