Alan Greenspan Cannot Quotations

People don't realize that we cannot forecast the future. What we can do is have probabilities of what causes what, but that's as far as we go. And I've had a very successful career as a forecaster, starting in 1948 forward. The number of mistakes I have made are just awesome. There is no number large enough to account for that.

I get so engaged when I have a problem you cannot solve that I just cannot break away from what I am doing - I keep thinking and thinking and cannot stop.

Unless you are willing to compromise, society cannot live together.

The problem is you cannot have free global trade with highly restrictive, regulated domestic markets.

Increased jobs are the consequence of increased trade. Increasing jobs more than output implies a fall in productivity and standards of living. That surely cannot be our goal.

It is much too soon to conclude that these concerns are behind us, ... We cannot yet be sure that the slower expansion of domestic final demand, at a pace more in line with potential supply, will persist.

The rate of growth of productivity cannot increase indefinitely, ... While there appears to be considerable expectation in the business community, and possibly Wall Street, that the productivity acceleration has not yet peaked, experience advises caution.

The fact of the matter is, we do not have an unlimited amount of labor, ... the wealth effect cannot persist indefinitely.

We cannot rule out a situation in which a pre-emptive policy tightening may become appropriate before any sign of actual higher inflation becomes evident.

We cannot be a central bank for others.

Although we cannot know with certainty until the books are closed, the growth of productivity since 1995 appears to be among the largest in decades,

I cannot find (inflation) no matter where I look,

I cannot say we have made comments we can essentially deliver.

A good part of this expansion is a direct function of the decline in real equity premiums. That cannot go on indefinitely.

The economic and financial world is changing in ways that we still do not fully comprehend, ... Policymakers accordingly cannot always count on an ability to anticipate potentially adverse developments sufficiently in advance to effectively address them.