pushing on a string Concepts

The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street

by Justin Fox · 29 May 2009 · 461pp · 128,421 words

the Depression, Keynes took things a step further. The remedy Fisher prescribed was to print more money. Keynes despaired that this would amount merely to “pushing on a string,” and argued that government needed to spend money to get the economy moving again. As a matter of economic policy, this was a big difference

Termites of the State: Why Complexity Leads to Inequality

by Vito Tanzi · 28 Dec 2017

decades the attitude toward the role of monetary policy in promoting economic stabilization has changed. It has changed from the earlier view, that “you cannot push on a string” or “you can take a horse to the river but you cannot make it drink,” to one that believes monetary policy can bring “great moderation

Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover

by Katrina Vanden Heuvel and William Greider · 9 Jan 2009 · 278pp · 82,069 words

last summer started lowering interest rates on loans to the banks. But in a phrase from the bank crisis of the 1930s, it was like “pushing on a string.” The bankers’ problem was not that money was too expensive to lend out; it was that they were afraid they wouldn’t get their money

European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics Are in a Mess - and How to Put Them Right

by Philippe Legrain · 22 Apr 2014 · 497pp · 150,205 words

banks, households and companies all want to hoard money not part with it, monetary policy becomes largely ineffective. In a liquidity trap, it is like pushing on a string. Normally, when the Bank of England cuts its bank lending rate, the rate at which banks can borrow more generally also falls.428 Banks then

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud

by Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman · 17 Jul 2023 · 329pp · 99,504 words

year. As Ahamed notes, “A similar measure in late 1930 or in 1931 might have changed the course of history. In 1932 it was like pushing on a string.” The economy continued in its tailspin, bottoming out in March 1933 as the commercial banking system collapsed. It would take years for the American economic

Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy

by Dani Rodrik · 8 Oct 2017 · 322pp · 87,181 words

very little to solve the short‐run problem of inadequate demand. Dealing with this problem through supply‐side reforms aimed at increasing productivity is like pushing on a string. What is needed instead is some good old‐fashioned Keynesianism: policies to boost eurozone–wide demand and stimulate greater spending in creditor countries, especially Germany

The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite

by Duff McDonald · 24 Apr 2017 · 827pp · 239,762 words

responsibilities, labor laws, corporate citizenship, socially responsible investing, and serving the public interest. But in this, its influence can clearly be seen as akin to pushing on a string. “[While] the average firm has assiduously applied the agency theory principles that increase corporate entrepreneurialism and risk,” write Frank Dobbin and Jiwook Jung in their

The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy

by Stephanie Kelton · 8 Jun 2020 · 338pp · 104,684 words

. Lower interest rates might work to induce enough new borrowing to substantially lower unemployment. But they might not. As Keynes famously observed, “You can’t push on a string.” What he meant was that the Fed can make it cheaper to borrow, but it cannot force anyone to take out a loan. Borrowing money

Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story

by Kurt Eichenwald · 14 Mar 2005 · 992pp · 292,389 words

, like he’d been most days in the months since the end of Project Summer. Every other sales effort had bombed out. “This is like pushing on a string, Jeff,” he said. “I’m not getting anywhere.” “We’re going to have to keep plugging,” Skilling replied. The international projects had to be sold

The Finance Curse: How Global Finance Is Making Us All Poorer

by Nicholas Shaxson · 10 Oct 2018 · 482pp · 149,351 words

cutters to answer. Why would a corporate tax reduction – adding to already vast uninvested cash piles – spur corporations to invest? Corporate tax cutting is like pushing on a string. And, given how quickly cash piles have been growing – a hefty 6 per cent a year, at the last count – any research based on past

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rules – suddenly encourage them to start? Such measures may quantifiably boost corporate profits, but in terms of attracting or stimulating real investment, they would be pushing on a string. And it’s worse than that, for the same reason I explained earlier. Because these measures take wealth out of the hands of workers and