Since JPMorgan Chase announced its surprise $2 billion-and-growing trading loss, there have been renewed calls from economists, pundits, and politicians to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, a Depression-era law that prevented commercial banks from participating in investment banking activities.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Like many free market economists, with whom he had little else in common, Nehru seemed to believe that people will find a way to get their children educated.

Abhijit Banerjee

Sometimes economists are right, and sometimes economists are wrong.

Abhijit Banerjee

Happiness quantification sounds a bit wishy-washy, sure, and through a series of carefully administered surveys across the globe, economists and psychologists have certainly confronted a fair number of sticky issues around how to measure, and even define, happiness.

Adam Davidson

When you cover the economy as a reporter, there's one part of the job that is always easy: finding economists who disagree.

Adam Davidson

Perhaps concentrated wealth will inspire a nation of innovative problem-solvers. But if the view of many economists is right - that it sometimes discourages innovation - then we should worry.

Adam Davidson

The America that I think most Americans would want, most economists on the right or left would want, is one in which a smart, ambitious, hardworking person without a huge amount of resources has a pretty good shot, in the end, of beating out a less smart, less ambitious, less hardworking rich person.

Adam Davidson

Like a bottle of wine or a promising college quarterback turning pro, C.E.O.'s are similar to what economists call experience goods: you commit to a price long before you know if they're worth it.

Adam Davidson

Unlike physics, economists don't settle things. There seems to be plenty of room for different conclusions that are still accepted in the academy.

Adam Davidson

I don't think that much change comes from economists. I think it comes more from political realities. Probably the two giants of the 20th century, who actually did shift government policy in the U.S. and around the world, were John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. I don't see anybody in our system who is at that level of influence.

Adam Davidson

I'm a free-market economist from years and years back, and I've never veered from that.

Alan Greenspan

Macroeconomics is the analysis of the economy as a whole, an examination of overall supply and demand. At the broadest level, macroeconomists want to understand why some countries grow faster than others and which government policies can help growth.

Alex Berenson

Microeconomics is the study of how specific choices made by businesses, consumers and governments affect the markets for different goods and services. For example, a microeconomist might examine how price changes affect sales of apples relative to oranges.

Alex Berenson

To economists, prices serve as crucial signals to producers and consumers. In a regulated market, the state sets prices high enough for private companies to cover their costs and earn a guaranteed profit for their investors. But in a deregulated market, prices should vary with demand and supply.

Alex Berenson

But if, if you take a look at what would have happened, I mean, do we need to see soup lines down the street to figure out what would have happened? We avoided - and all economists will tell you that millions of jobs were saved because of the Recovery Act, and we avoided a second Great Depression. That, that is a reality.

Alexi Giannoulias

An economist is a man who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible.

Alfred A. Knopf

'The Economist' is a biased organization.

Ali Babacan

We have lots of evidence that putting investments in early childhood education, even evidence from very hard-nosed economists, is one of the very best investments that the society can possibly make. And yet we still don't have public support for things like preschools.

Alison Gopnik

A lot of people are surprised economists are assisting with kidney exchanges. Exchanges are what economists are good at.

Alvin E. Roth

If a magazine proudly labels itself 'The Economist,' you would expect that publication to understand the economic burdens of today's youth. But when a tone-deaf writer at the magazine tweets an article asking 'Why aren't millennials buying diamonds,' it pretty much sums up how oblivious some can be in matters they're supposed to be experts in.

Ana Kasparian

My mother died of lung cancer last year. I felt helpless. As an economist, I thought, 'What can I do?'

Andrew Lo