Alan Greenspan Product Quotations

Productivity is notoriously difficult to predict.

We should not be cutting taxes by borrowing, ... We do not have the capability of having both productive tax cuts and large expenditure increases, and presume that the deficit doesn't matter.

Most high-income people in our country do not realize that their incomes are being subsidized by their protection from competition from highly skilled people who are prevented from immigrating to the United States. But we need such skills in order to staff our productive economy, so that the standard of living for Americans as a whole can grow.

With production running well below sales, the lift to income and spending from the inevitable cessation of inventory liquidation could be significant,

These products could be cause for some concern both because they expose borrowers to more interest-rate and house-price risk than the standard 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage and because they are seen as vehicles that enable marginally qualified, highly leveraged borrowers to purchase homes at inflated prices,

The extent and pace of recovery of Asian economies currently experiencing a severe downturn will have important ramifications for prices of energy and other commodities, the strength of the dollar, and competitive conditions on world product markets,

Manufacturing capacity is not a rigid level against which one bounces. When you are dealing with a world economy, with a flexibility to employ production facilities other than one's own, then the concept of capacity is vaguer.

New hires and recalls from layoffs... are far below what historical experience indicates, ... To a surprising degree, firms seem to be able to continue identifying and implementing new efficiencies in their production processes and thus have found it possible so far to meet increasing orders without stepping up hiring.

Competition is the necessary driving force toward delivering a superior product or service, ... We should not shy away from it.

A slowing in the rate of inventory liquidation will induce a rise in industrial production if demand for those products is stable or is falling only moderately, ... That rise in production will, other things being equal, increase household income and spending.