Joan Robinson Economics Quotations

economics limps along with one foot in untested hypotheses and the other in untestable slogans.

A depression is a situation of self-fulfilling pessimism.

When I came up to Cambridge (in October 1921) to read economics, I did not have much idea of what it was about.

owning capital is not a productive activity.

The very nature of economics is rooted in nationalism. ... It [was] developed ... in the hope of throwing light upon questions of policy. But policy means nothing unless there is an authority to carry it out, and authorities are national.

The point of studying economics is so as not to be fooled by economists.

The first essential for economists ... is to ... combat, not foster, the ideology which pretends that values which can be measured in terms of money are the only ones that ought to count.

The only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is not being exploited by capitalism.