People are reasonably good at estimating how things add up, but for compounding, which involved repeated multiplication, we fail to appreciate how quickly things grow.
Paul RomerRead
If you go back to the really long-run questions that interested me, the big question was why, over the centuries, the millennia, has growth been speeding up?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the historical acceleration of economic growth and the underlying reasons behind this trend.
In this quote, Paul Romer expresses a deep curiosity about the factors driving sustained economic growth throughout history. He highlights the significance of understanding why growth has not only been a persistent phenomenon over centuries but has also been accelerating, suggesting that underlying societal, technological, and economic frameworks have evolved in ways that foster this upward trend.
Themes
GrowthEconomyAccelerationHistoryDevelopment
In practice
Example use cases
In a conference on economic policies, one might say, 'As Paul Romer pointed out, we must ask ourselves why growth has been speeding up over the centuries.'
More from Paul Romer
All quotes βWhen somebody discovers something like the quadratic formula or the Pythagorean theorem, the convention in science is that he can't control that idea. He has to give it away. He publishes it. What's rewarded in science is dissemination of ideas.
Paul RomerRead
An economy can survive with 10% of the population insolation. It can't survive when 50% of the population is in isolation.
Paul RomerRead
One of the most powerful insights in economics is this idea of a division of labor. You do the thing you're good at. Other people do something else that they're good at. The net effect is better for everybody.
Paul RomerRead
Human material existence is limited by ideas, not stuff, people don't need copper wires they need ways to communicate, oil was a contaminant, then it became a fuel
Paul RomerRead
It is the job of government to prevent a tragedy of the commons. That includes the commons of shared values and norms on which democracy depends.
Paul RomerRead
Similar quotes
The Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession, although perhaps a fairly severe one, into a major catastrophe. Instead of using its powers to offset the depression, it presided over a decline in the quantity of money by one-third from 1929 to 1933 ... Far from the depression being a failure of the free-enterprise system, it was a tragic failure of government.
Milton FriedmanRead
Economic growth is very important, but it is not the only thing, and it must be accompanied by sharing with those who are left behind, through effective social services and provision.
Angus DeatonRead
A winner-takes-all economy that offers only limited access to the middle class is a recipe for democratic malaise and dereliction.
Klaus SchwabRead
In reality there is no such thing as an inflation of prices, relatively to gold. There is such a thing as a depreciated paper currency.
Lysander SpoonerRead
Global capital markets pose the same kinds of problems that jet planes do. They are faster, more comfortable, and they get you where you are going better. But the crashes are much more spectacular.
Lawrence SummersRead
One-sided national economic triumphs cannot be achieved in the increasingly interwoven global economy without precipitating calamitous consequences for everyone.
Zbigniew BrzezinskiRead