Paul Romer

“I'd rather live in a world where firms don't have these enormous incentives to spy on individuals.”

“Ideas can be used by many people at the same time.”

“We live in a much more interconnected world now, and that means that it's more fragile than we realize.”

“Unfortunately, we don't have a bankruptcy process. Suppose the state actually just gets to the point where it cannot meet all of its promises that it's made. We might need a way to figure out, O.K., well, who's not going to get what they were promised? This is what we had to do for the city of Detroit.”

“A well-run city lets millions of people come together and enjoy the benefit they can get from working together and trading with each other.”

“An economy can survive with 10% of the population insolation. It can't survive when 50% of the population is in isolation.”

“In the developing world, most people don't yet live in big well-run cities. Given the chance to move to one, hundreds of millions of people would go there to get a job, get an education for their children, and live in a place that is clean, safe, and healthy.”