Tim Harford

“People today don't become economists to make the world a better place.”

“Our society is intertwined with the economy that we've built, which is a fantastically complex system. I hope that my writing about it might do some good, but that's not why I do it.”

“The supermarket chain Whole Foods has quite a radical employee empowerment program, where employees get to decide whether another employee can work in their team or not. If they think this person's a slacker, doesn't have good ideas, they can vote and say, no, we don't want this person to be working with us on the vegetable aisle.”

“I think the association of economics with forecasting is unfortunate and is down to the fact that one great way to get an investment bank's name on business television is to hire a guy called a Chief Economist who will go and prognosticate.”

“הוא מצויד לא רק ביכולת כתיבה, אלא גם בהומור.”

“הניסיון לעבוד לצד טלפון עם אינטרנט דומה לניסיון לעשות דיאטה כשלידך יש מיני־בר מלא בבירה ובגלידות במרחק נגיעה.”

“אנחנו מקבלים כמובן מאליו את העובדה שבחנויות אנחנו מוקפים מוצרים מכל רחבי העולם. המכולה הסטנדרטית והלא־מלהיבה הייתה כוח חזק יותר בקידום הגלובליזציה מאשר ארגון הסחר העולמי.”

“התקדמות באינטליגנציה המלאכותית, ברובוטיקה, במציאות המדומה, בננו־טכנולוגיה, בביו־טכנולוגיה, בנוירו־טכנולוגיה ובמגוון תחומים נוספים.”

“בעודנו מתאמצים להשתמש בהן באופן הטוב ביותר, הטכנולוגיות האלה מעצבות מחדש את עולמנו.”

“אנחנו אנושיים לא רק בגלל המוח שלנו, אלא גם בזכות העיניים החדות והאצבעות הפיקחות.”

“הטכנולוגיה החדשה המשפיעה ביותר היא לעתים קרובות צנועה וזולה.”

“How did the economy produce all these amazing things that we have around us - computers and cell phones and so on? There were a bunch of ideas, and the good ones grew and prospered. And the bad ones were pretty ruthlessly weeded out.”

“We still don't have a good word to describe what is missing in Cameroon, indeed in poor countries across the world. But we are starting to understand what it is. Some people call it 'social capital, or maybe 'trust'. Others call it 'the rule of law', or 'institutions'. But these are just labels. The problem is that Cameroon, like other poor countries, is a topsy-turvy world in which it's in most people's interest to take action that directly or indirectly damages everyone else.”

“I never understand why 'economist makes forecast' is ever a headline. Whether the economist in question is from the International Monetary Fund, a City forecasting group or the Treasury - a forecast is still not news.”

“Cory Doctorow should be too busy for lunch. He's co-editor of, and a prolific contributor to, one of the most influential blogs in the world, Boing Boing. Over the past decade the Canadian-born writer has published 16 books, mostly science fiction novels. He campaigns vigorously on the politics of the digital age.”

“In certain businesses, I would say 10 failures to one success is a perfectly acceptable ratio. Because the failures die pretty quickly, they're not that expensive, and the successes can be really huge.”

“I don't think Brian Cox does 'The Wonders of the Solar System' because he believes the world would be a better place if people understood about the rings of Saturn; I just think he finds physics extremely interesting. It brings him joy, and he wants to spread the love. I feel the same about economics.”

“Failure's inevitable. It happens all the time in a complex economy. And how did the economy produce all these amazing things that we have around us, computers and cell phones and so on? Well, the process was trial and error. There were a bunch of ideas, and the good ones grew and prospered, and the bad ones were pretty ruthlessly weeded out.”

“I am aiming my books at anybody with no economics background.”

“Bill Phillips was this nervous, chain-smoking student. He had signed up to be an engineer, he had gone away to fight in the Second World War, he had come back. He had switched to sociology because he wanted to understand how people could do these terrible things to each other. And he did a little bit of economics on the side.”