The Only Game in Town Quotes

“Having been forced into being the only game in town, they (Central banks) now find that their destiny is no longer entirely or even mostly theirs to control. The legacy of their exceptional period of hyper policy experimentation is now in the hands of governments and their political bosses (p. 265).”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“One road out of the T junction ahead involves a restoration of high-inclusive growth that creates jobs, reduces the risk of financial instability, and counters excessive inequality. It is a path that also lowers political tensions, eases governance dysfunction, and holds the hope of defusing some of the world’s geopolitical threats. The other road is the one of even lower growth, persistently high unemployment, and still worsening inequality. It is a road that involves renewed global financial instability, fuels political extremism, and erodes social cohesion as well as integrity.”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” —CHARLES DARWIN”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“Ever since the 2008 global financial crisis, central banks had ventured, not by choice but by necessity, ever deeper into the unfamiliar and tricky terrain of “unconventional monetary policies.” They floored interest rates, heavily intervened in the functioning of markets, and pursued large-scale programs that outcompeted one another in purchasing securities in the marketplace; to top it all off, they aggressively sought to manipulate investor expectations and portfolio decisions.”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“It is a world in which summits are driven more by public relations considerations than substance.”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“Whether in emerging economies or on the occasion of Secretary of the Treasury Geithner’s visits to Europe during the height of the debt crisis there in 2012, there is something of a tendency these days to downplay the views of the United States, even when they make clear sense.”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“Central bank actions indeed ended up being a lot more helpful to Wall Street than to Main Street.”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“Periods of financial stability give rise to subsequent periods of great financial instability”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“Due to repeated conditioning, investors had come to expect central bank intervention whenever asset prices hit a notable air pocket or economic conditions faltered anew”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“A generation that mistakenly fell in love with the notion that credit rather than income could underpin a growing standard of living and national prosperity.”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“Fedspeak” peculiar wording of Federal Reserve involving the use of numerous and complicated words to convey little if any meaning.”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“Most people spend little if any time thinking about how central banks impact them—not only in their daily lives but also in the opportunities that their kids will have.”
― Mohamed El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse

“But while these views have also been evolving, many in the economic forecasting profession, however, have insufficiently internalized the implications for what lies ahead.”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” —MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“I am describing the outlook that I see as most likely, but based on many years of making economic projections, I can assure you that any specific projection I write down will turn out to be wrong, perhaps markedly so.” —JANET YELLEN”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“As stable as it may seem on the surface to some, the current configuration of the global economy and the financial system is getting harder to maintain. Below the façade of the unusual calm of the last few years, interrupted by relatively few bouts of instability since 2008–09, tensions are rising and the effectiveness of central banks is coming under stress, so much so as to raise serious questions about the durability of the current path that the global economy is on.”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.” —JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“growth models.”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse

“worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.”
― Mohamed A El-Erian, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Recovering from Another Collapse