Author

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.

From Tim Harford

Funnily enough, the Federal Reserve produced comics about monetary policy, and there is a good comic book guide to microeconomics and macroeconomics out there. But it is not really appropriate for younger readers; it is really aimed at economics students.

From Tim Harford

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

From Tim Harford

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.

From Tim Harford

Economists have allowed themselves to walk into a trap where we say we can forecast, but no serious economist thinks we can.

From Tim Harford

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

From Tim Harford

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.

From Tim Harford

It's difficult because we tend to overrate the pain of failure. We fear it too much. That's research that emerges from psychology. We think it's going to be worse than it really is. And, I think, as we get a bit older, really after we leave school or college, we quickly stop experimenting.

From Tim Harford

Tim Harford

Notable Quotes

Authors with Similar Views

Barry Ritholtz

Eric Maskin

Paul Samuelson

Alan Greenspan

James Dyson

Authors with Opposing Views

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Billy Childish

Edward C. Prescott

Eric Alterman

George Lois