"The general theory of economic equilibrium was strengthened and made effective as an organon of thought by two powerful subsidiary conceptions - the Margin and Substitution. The notion of the Margin was extended beyond Utility to describe the equilibrium point in given conditions of any economic factor which can be regarded as capable of small variations about a given value, or in its functional relation to a given value." (John M Keynes, "Essays In Biography", 1933)
"Perhaps as important is the relation between the existence of solutions to a competitive equilibrium and the problems of normative or welfare economics." (Kenneth J Arrow & Gerard Debreu. "Existence of an equilibrium for a competitive economy", Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 1954)
"[Equilibrium] is a notion which can be employed usefully in varying degrees of looseness. It is an absolutely indispensable part of the toolbag of the economist and one which he can often contribute usefully to other sciences which are occasionally apt to get lost in the trackless exfoliations of purely dynamic systems." (Kenneth Boulding, The Skills of the Economist", Journal of Political Economy 67 (1), 1959)
"The ability to work with systems of general equilibrium is perhaps one of the most important skills of the economist - a skill which he shares with many other scientists, but in which he has perhaps a certain comparative advantage." (Kenneth Boulding, "The Skills of the Economist", Journal of Political Economy 67 (1), 1959)
"An economy may be in equilibrium from a short-period point of view and yet contain within itself incompatibilities that are soon going to knock it out of equilibrium." (Joan Robinson, "Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth", 1965)
"We know, in other words, the general conditions in which what we call, somewhat misleadingly, an equilibrium will establish itself: but we never know what the particular prices or wages are which would exist if the market were to bring about such an equilibrium." (Friedrich Hayek, "Unemployment and monetary policy: government as generator of the ‘business cycle’", 1979)
"Economic theory is devoted to the study of equilibrium positions. The concept of equilibrium is very useful. It allows us to focus on the final outcome rather than the process that leads up to it. But the concept is also very deceptive. It has the aura of something empirical: since the adjustment process is supposed to lead to an equilibrium, an equilibrium position seems somehow implicit in our observations. That is not true. Equilibrium itself has rarely been observed in real life - market prices have a notorious habit of fluctuating." (George Soros, "The Alchemy of Finance: Reading the Mind of the Market", 1987)
"The concept of a general equilibrium has no relevance to the real world (in other words, classical economics is an exercise in futility)." (George Soros, "The Alchemy of Finance: Reading the Mind of the Market", 1987)
"Financial markets are supposed to swing like a pendulum: They may fluctuate wildly in response to exogenous shocks, but eventually they are supposed to come to rest at an equilibrium point and that point is supposed to be the same irrespective of the interim fluctuations." (George Soros, "The Crisis of Global Capitalism", 1998)
"Stock market bubbles don't grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality - but reality as distorted by a misconception. Under normal conditions misconceptions are self-correcting, and the markets tend toward some kind of equilibrium. Occasionally, a misconception is reinforced by a trend prevailing in reality, and that is when a boom-bust process gets under way. Eventually the gap between reality and its false interpretation becomes unsustainable, and the bubble bursts." (George Soros, [interview] 2004)
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