Quote Origin: Predicted Nine Out of the Last Five Recessions

Paul Samuelson? Economists? Wall Street Indexes? Katharyn Duff? Lawrence Summers? Niall Ferguson? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the fluctuations of the economy is enormously difficult.  Many economists have forecast recessions that never occurred. Here are three comical expressions: (1) Economists have predicted 11 of the last 5 recessions.(2) The markets projected twelve of the last …

No One Washes a Rental Car

Thomas Friedman? Lawrence Summers? Jack Kemp? Bill Creech?  Aircraft Maintenance Chief? Thomas Peters? Nancy Austin? Dear Quote Investigator: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has used the following catch phrase several times: No one washes a rented car. I think this saying encapsulates an important idea. There is little incentive to wash or maintain a …