The growth of globalism highlights the interconnectedness of people around the world. The distribution of labor that Adam Smith talked about is now global, not just local.
Over the last few months, we have seen the instability and deterioration of global monetary systems pushing us into a worldwide recession. The following quotes are meant to provide some insight to today's situation and how governments and their leadership hope to solve this monetary instability.
How we created the monetary problem:
"An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced." Ayn Rand
"The encouragement of mere consumption is no benefit to commerce; for the difficulty lies in supplying the means, not in stimulating the desire of consumption; and we have seen that production alone furnishes those means. Thus, it is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption." Jean Baptiste Say
"The world is made up of one percent of the population who think, nine percent who think they think and ninety percent who wouldn't be caught dead thinking." Anonymous
"Nowadays you have one worldwide stock exchange. Nobody is controlling it. You have one worldwide money market. Nobody is controlling it. The central banks are still living in the 1970's--some in the 1960's" Helmut Schmidt
"The only quality demanded of a monetary system which is of any importance for promoting the trade and general welfare of the world, is stability." Gustav Cassel
"A society in which there is a widespread economic insecurity can turn freedom into a barren and vapid right for millions of people." Eleanor Roosevelt
"...it is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense... They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trust private people with theirs." Adam Smith
"The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan
"Take my assets--but leave me my organization and in five years I'll have it all back." Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
"The difference between liberals and conservatives is that conservatives believe that man is born evil and that society's institutions make him good while liberals believe that man is born good and that society makes him evil." Herman Kahn
"The first quality for a commander-in-chief is a cool head to receive a correct impression of things. He should not allow himself to be confused either by good or bad news." Napoleon Bonaparte
"There is required for the composition of a great commander not only massive common sense and reasoning power, not only imagination, but also an element of legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten." Winston Churchill
"It is not essential...that a prince should have all good qualities....But it is most essential that he should seem to have them." Niccolo Machiavelli
"Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities." Thomas Jefferson
Strategy for Solving the Problem:
"Dramatic change often comes as a response to imminent collapse." Tom Peters
"Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point." Henry Mintzberg
"It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things." Nicolo Machiavelli
"If you are planning for one year, grow rice. If you are planning for 20 years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow men." Chinese Proverb
"I know only two ways in which societies can permanently be governed--by public opinion and by the sword." Thomas Babington Macaulay