Glenn Stevens (Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia): "The biggest mistake we could make would be to talk ourselves into unnecessary economic weakness" (Australian Business, 19 November 2008)
Ken Henry (Australian Treasury Secretary) : "We can talk ourselves into worse outcomes, course we can, people do. It wouldn't be the first time, but we don't have to." (ABC Radio, 12 November 2008. Via Kevin Rennie, who calls it "white-anting", an Australian term for internal erosion.)
(I've never been to Australia, but my mental image of "white-anting" is of a structure that suddenly collapses without warning, because of an accumulation of invisible damage. I think that metaphor perfectly describes the collapse of several large financial institutions because of an accumulation of unwise decisions by their traders and executives. But I think public nay-saying by opposition politicians is quite different from this, and I put a comment on Kevin's blog to this effect.)
Jon Atkins (Business psychologist): "Are we driven to recession or do we talk ourselves into one? (EZine, 23 October 2008)
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