It makes me happy to think that this world of art-as-investment is a minuscule fraction of the art world overall. Most people who create, trade and own art do it for a much simpler reason. They just like it. – Adam Davidson
What there is no dispute about is whether or not China is a currency manipulator. They are a currency manipulator. They actively intervene every single day to keep the value of their currency less than it would be against the dollar than if it floated freely. We think. Even China barely disputes that. – Adam Davidson
One of the great political and economic challenges of our time is figuring out the balance between wealth that benefits society and wealth that distorts. – Adam Davidson
If an alien with an accounting degree touched down in America, it might conclude that we’re a weird cult that spends 11 months living frugally and four crazy weeks buying tons of stuff we don’t need. It wouldn’t be entirely wrong, either. – Adam Davidson
When you cover the economy as a reporter, there’s one part of the job that is always easy: finding economists who disagree. – Adam Davidson
What we want as an economy is companies and people, you know, working hard to come up with creative ways to be more productive. We don’t want companies and people working hard to lobby government for special tax cuts. – Adam Davidson
When you see a merger between two giants in a declining industry, it can look like the financial version of a couple having a baby to save a marriage. – Adam Davidson
The America that I think most Americans would want, most economists on the right or left would want, is one in which a smart, ambitious, hardworking person without a huge amount of resources has a pretty good shot, in the end, of beating out a less smart, less ambitious, less hardworking rich person. – Adam Davidson
Economics is all about consumption. People either spend money now or they use financial instruments – like bonds, stocks and savings accounts – so they can spend more later. – Adam Davidson
The idea of confidence, of the emotions of the population, is an incredibly important one in economics. John Maynard Keynes called it ‘animal spirit.’ And if people are feeling generally good about the future, they’re more likely to spend money, to start new companies; companies are more likely to hire people, make investments. – Adam Davidson
We can fight over what the taxation levels should be, but the tax system should be very, very simple and not distortionary. – Adam Davidson
Poverty is not the simple result of bad geography, bad culture, bad history. It’s the result of us: of the ways that people choose to organize their societies. – Adam Davidson
The economy works best when better ideas win out over worse ideas, harder work wins out over less work, when it’s a fair fight in the marketplace. – Adam Davidson
Happiness statistics may be most valuable in smaller, local discussions. Understanding how different sorts of programs affect the well-being of citizens would be enormously helpful to a mayor choosing between building a new bridge or offering a tax cut. – Adam Davidson
Much of what we consider the American way of life is rooted in the period of remarkably broad, shared economic growth, from around 1900 to about 1978. – Adam Davidson
Lots of countries have great constitutions, but their leaders have a practice of ignoring the rules whenever they feel like it. – Adam Davidson
Perhaps concentrated wealth will inspire a nation of innovative problem-solvers. But if the view of many economists is right – that it sometimes discourages innovation – then we should worry. – Adam Davidson
If large numbers of people believe they have no shot at a better life in the future, they will work less hard and generate fewer new ideas and businesses. The economy, as a whole, will be poorer. – Adam Davidson
A healthy economy is largely a result of a reasonable balance between consumption today and consumption deferred, and it’s pretty clear that balance has been ridiculously out of whack for a while. – Adam Davidson
Happiness quantification sounds a bit wishy-washy, sure, and through a series of carefully administered surveys across the globe, economists and psychologists have certainly confronted a fair number of sticky issues around how to measure, and even define, happiness. – Adam Davidson
