James Tobin

"Debt-to-GDP ratios matter for long-term fiscal sustainability and credibility."

"The financial sector's size relative to the real economy has grown significantly and raises questions about efficiency."

"Innovation in payment systems and finance can improve efficiency but also create new risks."

"Aggregate demand determines employment in the short run; productivity growth determines it in the long run."

"Poverty alleviation requires both economic growth and policies that ensure broad-based opportunity."

"The shadow banking system grew to massive proportions and revealed vulnerabilities in financial oversight."

"Income mobility—the ability to move up the economic ladder—is essential for fairness and social stability."

"Forward guidance from central banks can influence expectations and improve policy effectiveness."

"The cost of living varies significantly across regions and should affect policy assessments."

"Monetary aggregates like M1 and M2 have become less reliable indicators as financial innovation accelerates."

"Bank capital requirements exist to prevent excessive risk-taking and protect depositors."

"Secular stagnation—persistent low growth and interest rates—poses long-term challenges for economies."

"The yield curve's shape contains information about expectations for future economic growth and inflation."

"Inclusive growth that benefits workers and communities is more sustainable than growth that concentrates gains."

"Monetary policy's distributional effects—who gains and who loses—deserve serious consideration."

"Financial literacy should be part of basic education so people can make sound economic decisions."

"The neutrality of money—that it has no long-run real effects—is more applicable in some contexts than others."

"The stock market is not the economy, and the economy is not the stock market."

"We are all Keynesians now in the sense that we cannot ignore the short run."

"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon."

"The multiplier effect demonstrates how initial spending ripples through an economy."

"Asset prices matter because they affect wealth and consumption decisions."

"Econometrics without theory is mere number crunching without meaning."

"The problem of unemployment is fundamentally a problem of demand."

"Interest rates are the price of time itself in economic transactions."

"Portfolio choices reflect not just returns but also the investor's risk tolerance."

"Money is a veil, but it can be a rather thick veil obscuring reality."

"Taxation without consideration of equity is merely extraction of resources."

"The business cycle is not a law of nature but a result of policy choices."

"Rational expectations theory assumes more about human nature than observation supports."