On Wall Street, fraudulent schemes tend to thrive during economic booms, and to blow up when times turn tough. – James Surowiecki
Wall Street has come a long way from the insider-dominated world that was blown apart by the Great Depression. – James Surowiecki
Of course, looking tough on inflation is part of any central banker’s job description: if investors believe that inflation is going to get out of control, you end up with higher interest rates and capital flight, and a vicious circle quickly ensues. – James Surowiecki
Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably smart – smarter even sometimes than the smartest people in them. – James Surowiecki
Traditionally, tours were a means of promoting a record. Today, the record promotes the tour. – James Surowiecki
Life insurance became popular only when insurance companies stopped emphasizing it as a good investment and sold it instead as a symbolic commitment by fathers to the future well-being of their families. – James Surowiecki
For most Americans, work is central to their experience of the world, and the corporation is one of the fundamental institutions of American life, with an enormous impact, for good and ill, on how we live, think, and feel. – James Surowiecki
Moviegoers love the intricacies of a crime all the more when it’s for a good cause. – James Surowiecki
Corporations hope that the right concept will turn things around overnight. This is what you might call the crash-diet approach: starve yourself for a few days and you’ll be thin for life. – James Surowiecki