Woodrow Wilson on neutrality

Neutrality is a negative word. It does not express what America ought to feel. We are not trying to keep out of trouble; we are trying to preserve the foundations on which peace may be rebuilt.

~ Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
1938

Ken Fisher: "Ignore political babble"

This year, ignore political babble. You’ll be better off. Ignore debt debates, silly fake controversies and finger pointing over who is or isn’t the bigger fan of private enterprise. (I win that footrace, anyway.) Or whose supporters are richer or not. And whether that’s bad or not. My forecast is for global stocks to end 2012 up big. Tune out the nonsense, and you’ll better enjoy the ride.

[...]

Love it or hate it, we either re-elect a Democrat or newly elect a Republican in November. Barring alien invasion, no other options. Historically, US stocks average 14.5% when we re-elect a Democrat and 18.8% when we newly elect a Republican—both great outcomes. So tune it out—your eardrums and portfolio will thank you.

~ Ken Fisher, "Put Them On Mute," Forbes.com, May 29, 2012

Ben Bernanke on QE3

Going forward, we’ll have to continue to make judgments about whether additional steps are warranted, but as we do so, we have to keep in mind that we do have a dual mandate, that we do have to worry about both the rate of growth but also the inflation rate.

The trade-offs are getting — are getting less attractive at this point. Inflation has gotten higher. Inflation expectations are a bit higher. It’s not clear that we can get substantial improvements in payrolls without some additional inflation risk. And in my view, if we’re going to have success in creating a long-run, sustainable recovery with lots of job growth, we’ve got to keep inflation under control. So we’ve got to look at both of those — both parts of the mandate as we — as we choose policy.

~ Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Bloomberg press conference, April 4/28/2011

Nouriel Roubini: "I don't see the markets falling"

Right now I don't see the financial markets falling.  I see the U.S. stock market flat for the rest of the year.

~ Nouriel Roubini

Murray Rothbard on how to treat politicians

But if taxation is robbery, then it follows as the night the day that those people who engage in, and live off, robbery are a gang of thieves.  Hence the government is a group of thieves, and deserves, morally, aesthetically, and philosophically, to be treated exactly as a group of less socially respectable ruffians would be treated.

~ Murray Rothbard

David Einhorn on income inequality

Ending the jelly-donut monetary policy [sugar high from ZIRP] would do more to alleviate income inequality than any of the widely debated changes in the tax code.  For the super wealthy, zero rates supported by a Bernanke put on the bond market encourage outsize income through leveraged speculation.  For everyone else, zero rates reduce the standard of living because greater food and energy costs soak up income.

~ David Einhorn, Spring Grant's Conference, 2012, as reported in April 20, 2012 issue of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, "Dollars to donuts"

Oscar Ameringer on politics

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

~ Oscar Ameringer, "the Mark Twain of socialism," (1870-1943)