“The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there.”

— Joseph E. Stiglitz

Quoted in Daniel Altman, "Managing Globalization: Q & A with Joseph Stiglitz" http://blogs.iht.com/tribtalk/business/globalization/?p=177, The International Herald Tribune (2006-10-11).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there." by Joseph E. Stiglitz?

Joseph E. Stiglitz 39

American economist and professor, born 1943. 1943

Related quotes

“You are not free. Myriad invisible hands hold your hands and direct them.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God

The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: You are not free. Myriad invisible hands hold your hands and direct them. When you rise in anger, a great-grandfather froths at your mouth; when you make love, an ancestral caveman growls with lust; when you sleep, tombs open in your memory till your skull brims with ghosts.

“Seem'd washing his hands with invisible soap
In imperceptible water.”

Thomas Hood (1799–1845) British writer

Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg. Her Christening http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/eop_hood_poetical_works_3.htm#115, st. 10 (1841-1843).
1840s

“I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

“When you are on the right path, invisible hands will come to your aid.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

“Zero is an invisible number that you cannot physically see or hold in your hands.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“There is no invisible hand guiding these processes, dealing out victory to the most deserving.
Chance is their leader.”

Ivar Ekeland (1944) French mathematician

Source: The Best of All Possible Worlds (2006), Chapter 7, May The Best One Win, p. 144.
Context: In the struggle for life, or in the struggle for power, there is no reason why their victory would make the world better than it was. There is no invisible hand guiding these processes, dealing out victory to the most deserving.
Chance is their leader.