In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.
Ben BernankeRead
Income inequality is troubling because, among other things, it means that many people in our society don't have the opportunities to advance themselves.
Interpretation
Income inequality restricts opportunities for many individuals to improve their lives.
Ben Bernanke's quote emphasizes the issue of income inequality as a significant societal problem, highlighting that when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, many people are deprived of the opportunities necessary for personal and professional advancement. This lack of access to resources can hinder social mobility, leading to a cycle of poverty that affects not just individuals, but the community and economy at large.
In practice
During a discussion on economic policy, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of addressing income inequality.
In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.
Education - lifelong education for everyone - from toddlers to workers well advanced in their careers - is indeed an excellent investment for individuals and society as a whole.
Nobody likes to fail but failure is an essential part of life and of learning. If your uniform isn't dirty, you haven't been in the game.
Life is amazingly unpredictable; any 22-year-old who thinks they know where they will be in 10 years, much less in 30, is simply lacking imagination.
The benefit of appointing a hawkish central banker is the increased inflation-fighting credibility that such an appointment brings.
Economics is a highly sophisticated field of thought that is superb at explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong. About the future, not so much.
The introduction of a substantial Government transfer tax on all transactions might prove the most serviceable reform available,with a view to mitigating the predominance of speculation in the United States.
The desire for economic prosperity is itself not culturally determined but almost universally shared
In the world of traditional economics, it shouldn't matter whether you use an opt-in or opt-out system. So long as the costs of registering as a donor or a nondonor are low, the results should be similar. But many findings of behavioral economics show that tiny disparities in such rules can make a big difference.
Thus, the weight of my criticism is directed against the inadequacy of the theoretical foundations of the laissez-faire doctrine upon which I was brought up and for many years I taught
I cannot disagree with you that having something like 500 economists is extremely unhealthy. As you say, it is not conducive to independent, objective research. You and I know there has been censorship of the material published. Equally important, the location of the economists in the Federal Reserve has had a significant influence on the kind of research they do, biasing that research toward noncontroversial technical papers on method as opposed to substantive papers on policy and results
The law of property determines who owns something, but the market determines how it will be used.
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