Richard Thaler Thinking Quotations

When should we nudge and when should we shove, I think, it's a political judgment. Obviously in some situations we need shoves, we need laws. Fraud is against the law, murder is against the law, drunk-driving is against the law. We don't need just nudges.

I think the people who've been the most overconfident in our business in the last decade have been the people that called themselves risk managers.

Is there a market for somebody selling a credit card that helps people pay down their balances? I think the question is yes. But it would have to be sold by a bank that's really willing to invest in being a trusted partner with its consumers, because they will make less money on each consumer.

I think we also have learned the lesson that we have to have better incentive structures.

Recall that people like to do what most people think it is right to do; recall too that people like to do what most people actually do.

I think one lesson we have to learn is that there's a lot more risk than we're giving credit to, a lot more what economist calls systematic risk.

There's no reason to think that markets always drive people to what's good for them.