Steve Hanke Quotes

United States, Economist
December 29, 1942

Steve H. Hanke is an American applied economist at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He is also a Senior Fellow and Director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, DC, and Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise in Baltimore, MD.

The IMF is set up to deal with liquidity crises.

Steve Hanke
- Crises
- Liquidity
- IMF
Trade balances are determined by national savings propensities, not exchange rates.

Steve Hanke

Sanctions historically are quite counterproductive in the sense that if you impose sanctions on your enemy, it tends to strengthen your enemy.

Steve Hanke
A minimum wage leads to higher levels of unemployment.

Steve Hanke
It turns out that the rich are much better placed to feed at the public trough. The poor get crumbs.

Steve Hanke
- Rich
- Poor
- Public
The most important lesson to take away from allowing the minimum wage and unemployment benefit data to talk is that abstract notions of what is right, good and just should be examined from a concrete, operational point of view. A dose of reality is most edifying.

Steve Hanke
Let the market, not politicians, determine the flow of rice, oil and other commodities. Lower, more stable prices will ensue.

Steve Hanke
With interest rates artificially low, consumers reduce savings in favor of consumption, and entrepreneurs increase their rates of investment spending.

Steve Hanke

During the last two centuries, there have been many deflations throughout the world. Almost all of them have been good ones precipitated by technological innovation, rising productivity, global capital flows, and sustained economic growth. If farm mechanization cuts the price of wheat, you get a rising living standard. This is good.

Steve Hanke
- Growth
- Innovation
- Living
There has never been a failure of a currency board anywhere in the world. These are tough systems, and when I say they are foolproof, that's exactly the case.

Steve Hanke
- Failure
- Currency
- Board