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"Colander, David" <[log in to unmask]>
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Tue, 3 Feb 2009 08:58:18 -0500
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Below are some quotations I selected for Irving Fisher to go on an
economist's calendar.  If any of you have any "better" selections
please let me know.


A few ground rules for the discussion:

	1. Space is limited, so please accompany any suggested quotation
with a suggestion of which quotation to cut.

	2. The new quotation can be no longer than the cut quotation.
	
	3. Please give the source for any quotation you give--I will have to
get permissions for each.

Thanks,

Dave Colander



Irving Fisher

"[Fisher's The Nature of Capital and Income] is 'Fisheresque' and 
therefore difficult to summarize, that is to say, it is worked out 
with the author's well-known and unflinching thoroughness and his 
merciless marshalling of details. It is also characterized throughout 
by a certain scientific hardheadedness which is not always found 
nowadays in writings upon capital and allied topics. (Thomas Nixon 
Carver, American Economic Association Bulletin, April, 1908).

"It is but natural that the heretical views contained in my book, 
"The Nature of Capital and Income", should have aroused criticism, 
but I confess I have been surprised at the manner in which this 
criticism has been distributed. Many of the views expressed to which 
resistance was expected have been accepted, while some of those which 
seemed beyond debate have been among the first to be questioned. The 
most striking instance of the latter is found in the case of the 
thesis that an increase in the value of capital is not a part of 
income. This has been a cherished heresy of mine since it was first 
stated in 1897. (21, Are Savings Income? Irving Fisher, American 
Economic Association Quarterly, 3rd Series, Vol. 9, No. 1)

  "When we say "the prices of goods are determined by supply and 
demand" we almost always ignore money. We only think of the supply 
and demand of goods. But that is only half of the story. Prices of 
goods are determined by the supply and demand not only of goods, but 
by the supply and demand of gold in terms of which, through money, 
all prices are expressed." (134, The Monetary Side of the Cost of 
Living Problem
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 
48, The Cost of Living (Jul., 1913)).

"The old and apparently still persistent notion of "the" business 
cycle, as a single, simple, self generating cycle (analogous to that 
of a pendulum swinging under influence of the single force of 
gravity) and as actually realized historically in regularly recurring 
crises, is a myth. Instead of one force there are many forces. (338, 
"The Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depression" Econometrica, Vol. 1, 
No. 4 (Oct., 1933)).

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