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 RobinsonEven if the crises that are looming up are overcome and a new run of prosperity lies ahead, deeper problems will still remain. Modern capitalism has no purpose except to keep the show going.
Joan RobinsonThe nature of technology depends very much upon what the public can be induced to put up with.
Joan RobinsonBut, as soon as speculators become an important influence in the market, their business is to speculate on each others behaviour.
Joan Robinsonscience progresses by trial and error, and when it is forbidden to admit error there can be no progress.
Joan RobinsonIt is a popular error that bureaucracy is less flexible than private enterprise. It may be so in detail, but when large scale adaptations have to be made, central control is far more flexible. It may take two months to get an answer to a letter from a government department, but it takes twenty years for an industry under private enterprise to readjust itself to a fall in demand.
Joan Robinson