“To paraphrase Clemenceau, money is much too serious a matter to be left to the Central Bankers.”

— Milton Friedman

Source: (1962), Ch. 3 The Control of Money, p. 50-51

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 "To paraphrase Clemenceau, money is much too serious a matter to be left to the Central Bankers." by Milton Friedman?

Milton Friedman 158

American economist, statistician, and writer 1912–2006

Related quotes

“The stock of money, prices and output was decidedly more unstable after the establishment of the Reserve System than before. The most dramatic period of instability in output was, of course, the period between the two wars, which includes the severe (monetary) contractions of 1920-1, 1929-33, and 1937-8. No other 20 year period in American history contains as many as three such severe contractions.
This evidence persuades me that at least a third of the price rise during and just after World War I is attributable to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System… and that the severity of each of the major contractions — 1920-1, 1929-33 and 1937-8 is directly attributable to acts of commission and omission by the Reserve authorities…
Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men, [so] that mistakes — excusable or not — can have such far reaching effects, is a bad system. It is a bad system to believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic — this is the key political argument against an independent central bank…
To paraphrase Clemenceau, money is much too serious a matter to be left to the central bankers.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

As quoted in The Money Masters (1995)

“A nation's wealth is too serious a matter to be left to the wealthy. The riches of a nation belong to all, to be shared among all for the general welfare.”

Pierre Stephen Robert Payne (1911–1983) British lecturer, novelist, historian, poet and biographer

A Vision of the Uncorrupted Society, p. 284 (See also: Karl Marx..)
The Corrupt Society - From Ancient Greece To Present-Day America (1975)

“Political questions are far too serious to be left to the politicians.”

Hannah Arendt book Men in Dark Times

Men in Dark Times (1968).

“A 007 James Bond image is very dangerous for a central banker to have.”

Raghuram G. Rajan (1963) Indian economist

On hearing that he was being compared to James Bond, as quoted in " Raghuram Rajan interview: ‘I’m no Bond. I’m a banker on the move’ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Raghuram-Rajan-interview-Im-no-Bond-Im-a-banker-on-the-move/articleshow/41296212.cms", The Times of India (31 August 2014)

“A banker need not be popular; indeed a good banker in a healthy capitalist society should probably be much disliked. People do not wish to trust their money to a hail-fellow-well-met but to a misanthrope who can say no.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Great Crash, 1929

Chapter VI https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929, Things Become More Serious, Section IV, p 115
The Great Crash, 1929 (1954 and 1997 https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929)

“War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.”

Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) French politician

La guerre! C’est une chose trop grave pour la confier à des militaires.
Variant translation: War is too important a matter to be left to the military.
As quoted in Soixante Anneés d'Histoire Française (1932) by Georges Suarez
War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.
As quoted in Clemenceau and the Third Republic (1946) by John Hampden Jackson, p. 228; this has also become commonly paraphrased as: War is too important to be left to the generals.
Post-Prime Ministerial