Alan Greenspan Cost Quotations

Over most of the past several years, the behavior of unit labor costs has been quite subdued, ... But those costs have turned up of late, and whether the favorable trends of the past few years will be maintained is unclear.

Protectionism in all its guises, both domestic and international, does not contribute to the welfare of American workers, ... At best, it is a short-term fix at a cost of lower standards of living for the nation as a whole.

The rates of return on investment in the same new technologies are correspondingly less in Europe and Japan because businesses there face higher costs of displacing workers than we do, ... Moreover, because our costs of dismissing workers are lower, the potential costs of hiring and the risks associated with expanding employment are less.

Lower equity prices and higher financing costs should damp household and business spending, and greater uncertainty and risk aversion may also lead to more cautious spending behavior,

This situation suggests that international investors will eventually adjust their accumulation of dollar assets or, alternatively, seek higher dollar returns to offset concentration risk, elevating the cost of financing of the U.S. current account deficit and rendering it increasingly less tenable,

Although this treatment of the cost of options is not ideal, it is arguably superior to their treatment in shareholder reports, where options are generally not expensed at all,

in more vulnerable countries where (the principal bank's) guarantee is more likely to be called upon and (where) cost might deter some aberrant borrowing.