Christina Romer Quotes

• Many of my students assume that government protection is the only thing ensuring decent wages for most American workers. But basic economics shows that competition between employers for workers can be very effective at preventing businesses from misbehaving.

  Christina Romer

  Government, Competition, Wages

  7 Copy quote

• Climate change and dependence on foreign oil are problems that won't go away on their own. Tabling plans to deal with them doesn't make it easier for companies to plan and invest; it makes it harder.

  Christina Romer

  Oil, Going Away, Climate

  4 Copy quote

• There's a joke in economics about the drunk who loses his keys in the street but only looks for them under the lightposts. When asked why, he says, 'because that's where the light is.' That's the problem with the deficit.

  Christina Romer

  Light, Keys, Drunk

  4 Copy quote

• Most arguments for instituting or raising a minimum wage are based on fairness and redistribution. Even if workers are getting a competitive wage, many of us are deeply disturbed that some hard-working families still have very little.

  Christina Romer

  Hard Work, Minimum Wage, Littles

  4 Copy quote

• Tax increases appear to have a very large sustained and highly significant negative impact on output.

  Christina Romer

  Impact, Negative, Significant

  8 Copy quote

• What I desire to point out is that I wish the law was not so, but that being the law, I must follow it.

  Christina Romer

  Law, Wish, Desire

  4 Copy quote

• Fewer people working means permanently lower tax revenues.

  Christina Romer

  Mean, People, Taxes

  4 Copy quote

• The goal of long-run economic growth without asset price bubbles is not only achievable, but is something we should expect if we put a sound regulatory framework in place and if policymakers remain vigilant.

  Christina Romer

  Running, Long, Goal

  7 Copy quote

• A natural way that an economist approaches a problem is to say, here's where I think the economy is going; this is what we need to deal with the problem.

  Christina Romer

  Thinking, Needs, Way

  4 Copy quote

• If every other store in town is paying workers $9 an hour, one offering $8 will find it hard to hire anyone - perhaps not when unemployment is high, but certainly in normal times. Robust competition is a powerful force helping to ensure that workers are paid what they contribute to their employers' bottom lines.

  Christina Romer

  Powerful, Offering, Competition

  7 Copy quote

• As a former member of President Obama's economic team, I have a soft spot for the fiscal stimulus legislation he signed just a month after his inauguration.

  Christina Romer

  Team, President, Months

  4 Copy quote

• In the four decades after World War II, manufacturing jobs paid more than other jobs for given skills. But that is much less true today. Increased international competition has forced American manufacturers to reduce costs. As a result, the pay premium for low-skilled workers in manufacturing is smaller than it once was.

  Christina Romer

  Jobs, War, Skills

  4 Copy quote

• You care about the deficit because it allows you to do things you need to do to help people who are suffering.

  Christina Romer

  People, Suffering, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• A successful argument for a government manufacturing policy has to go beyond the feeling that it's better to produce 'real things' than services. American consumers value health care and haircuts as much as washing machines and hair dryers.

  Christina Romer

  Real, Successful, Hair

  4 Copy quote

• President Obama has repeatedly urged Congress to let the Bush tax cuts expire for those earning more than $250,000 a year. Increasing rates on top earners is an obvious way to raise revenue from those who can afford it most.

  Christina Romer

  Cutting, Years, President

  4 Copy quote

• Raising the minimum wage, as President Obama proposed in his State of the Union address, tends to be more popular with the general public than with economists.

  Christina Romer

  President, Minimum Wage, Unions

  4 Copy quote

• Recent research suggests that New Deal programs may actually have had their primary impact on the economy by influencing consumer and business expectations of future growth and inflation.

  Christina Romer

  Impact, Expectations, Growth

  4 Copy quote

• You know, I think the, the crucial thing, you know, we have put in place what is, is just simply the biggest, boldest recovery package in history, right; the stimulus package, biggest ever; the financial rescue, absolutely comprehensive; a housing plan - that is incredible medicine for the economy. And we fully expect it to work.

  Christina Romer

  Recovery, Thinking, Medicine

  7 Copy quote

• If you look at the studies coming out of the Congressional Budget Office, the number one thing that's going to blow a hole in the deficit as we go forward 20, 30 years is government spending on healthcare.

  Christina Romer

  Blow, Government, Years

  7 Copy quote

• If you think about it, candidate Obama, Sen. Obama, was running on sort of long-run economic issues, like restoring prosperity to the middle class, dealing with the perennial problem of health care in the United States. He talked a lot about the budget deficit, about the need to transition to clean energy.

  Christina Romer

  Running, Thinking, Class

  4 Copy quote

• Honest talk about the deficit is risky. Voters are more enthusiastic about the abstract notion of deficit reduction than about the painful details of accomplishing it.

  Christina Romer

  Details, Voters, Honest

  4 Copy quote

• Cold-turkey deficit reduction would cause a significant recession. A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that going headlong over the cliff would cause our gross domestic product, which has been growing at an annual rate of around 2 percent, to fall at a rate of 2.9 percent in the first half of 2013.

  Christina Romer

  Fall, Turkeys, Office

  4 Copy quote

• If increasing income equality is the goal, it might be wiser to put money into infrastructure than to subsidize manufacturing. Construction also pays good wages, but with lower educational requirements. And America's infrastructure needs are enormous.

  Christina Romer

  Educational, America, Goal

  "Do Manufacturers Need Special Treatment?" by Christina Romer, www.nytimes.com. February 4, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• AS an economic historian, I appreciate what manufacturing has contributed to the United States. It was the engine of growth that allowed us to win two world wars and provided millions of families with a ticket to the middle class. But public policy needs to go beyond sentiment and history.

  Christina Romer

  War, Winning, Class

  "Do Manufacturers Need Special Treatment?" by Christina Romer, www.nytimes.com. February 4, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• Making labor less expensive helps firms hire people.

  Christina Romer

  People, Helping, Firm

  4 Copy quote

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