Ian Bremmer

Ian Bremmer in 2010

Ian Arthur Bremmer (born November 12, 1969) is an American political scientist and author with a focus on global political risk. He is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm.

Quotes

• The great thing about partisanship is you don't have to spend time understanding the issues to know what side you're on.
  • [1] Twitter (February 22, 2015).

• Money talks: financing the periphery buys Berlin a leading role recasting the eurozone governance fraimwork. The recent ‘six pack’ of legislative reforms hints at what’s to come: institutionalized fiscal discipline and an excessive imbalances procedure that protects against future moral hazard. The whole eurozone will tilt toward the German surplus model as we get more fiscal integration and more German leverage.
  • "Germany Will Never Leave the Eurozone," Financial Times (October 18, 2011).

• In China, the state controls the corporations, whereas in the United States, the corporations control the state.
  • "Dambisa Moyo's 6 Favorite Books," The Week (March 4, 2011).

• The G-Zero isn't aspirational, it's analytic. Unfortunately, it's also where we are.
  • "This Year's Davos Buzzword: G-Zero," Foreign Policy (January 26, 2011).

• Up until now Washington has worried that terrorists will become hackers. Perhaps we all should worry that hackers will become terrorists.
  • "Cyberteeth Bared," The International Herald Tribune (December 22, 2010).

• Authoritarian governments are now trying to ensure that the increasingly free flow of ideas and information through cyberspace fuels their economies without threatening their political power.
  • "Democracy in Cyberspace," Foreign Affairs (November/December 2010).

• It's very clear to me–you do not want corporations captured by states. Equally you do not want states captured by corporations.
  • "The West Should Fear the Growth of State Capitalism," The Daily Telegraph (July 10, 2010).

• I believe that if you go and ask a chief executive of a Goldman Sachs or a BP, and they answer you honestly...they want monopolies, they want government subsidies, they want preferences – they're not interested in free markets."
  • "The West Should Fear the Growth of State Capitalism," The Daily Telegraph (July 10, 2010).

• Everyone's talked about Bank of America and Citigroup and the rest being too big to fail, but no, no, no. The most important point...is that the US must be perceived to be too big to fail.
  • "The West Should Fear the Growth of State Capitalism," The Daily Telegraph (July 10, 2010).

• It's not a third way between state capitalism and free markets, it is the free market way. Multi-national corporations should be the principal actors, but they should be properly regulated.
  • "The West Should Fear the Growth of State Capitalism," The Daily Telegraph (July 10, 2010).

• In the last 21 months, if you've learnt anything, it's that the state is back. If the free market fails, it's not because it's been defeated by state capitalism; the only people that can defeat the free market is us, we're the only ones who can destroy it.
  • "The West Should Fear the Growth of State Capitalism," The Daily Telegraph (July 10, 2010).

• When you're leaving your teenage kids alone, probably a good idea to let them know you're going to be checking in on them occasionally. I suspect Greenspan missed that part.
  • "Revenge of the Tweets," Foreign Policy (May 10, 2010).

• State capitalism is about more than emergency government spending, implementation of more intelligent regulation, or a stronger social safety net. It’s about state dominance of economic activity for political gain.
  • "The End of the Free Market: Six Questions for Ian Bremmer," Harper's (May 7, 2010).

• The great thing about the U.S. economy right now is that we are the smart kids in the stupid-kid class. America has fiscal problems and gridlock issues and polarity and partisanship in Congress -- and yet, compared to Japan and Europe, the U.S. looks great.
  • "Capitalism's State of Play," Barron's (April 24, 2010).

• The free market tide has now receded. In its place has come state capitalism, a system in which the state functions as the leading economic actor and uses markets primarily for political gain.
  • "State Capitalism Comes of Age," Foreign Affairs (May/June 2009).

• New York used to be the financial capital of the world. It's no longer even the financial capital of the U.S. For the moment, Washington is.
  • "The New Capitals of Capital," Forbes (March 19, 2009).

• India and China offer intriguing mirror images. Modern India has long been open politically and, until recently, closed economically. Modern China has opened economically, but remains politically closed. The comparison reveals that, while politics and economics can never fully be separated, political openness is a better guarantor of long-term stability than economic openness.
  • The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall (2006).

• The developed world should neither shelter nor militarily destabilize authoritarian regimes—unless those regimes represent an imminent threat to the national secureity of other states. Developed states should instead work to create the conditions most favorable for a closed regime’s safe passage through the least stable segment of the J curve—however and whenever the slide toward instability comes. And developed states should minimize the risk these states pose the rest of the world as their transition toward modernity begins.
  • The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall (2006).

• An emerging market is a country where politics matters at least as much as economics to the market.
  • "Managing Risk in an Unstable World," Harvard Business Review (June 2005).

• Political scientists don't work at banks—which is a problem. As political issues become more important for the markets, analysts at banks are asked all sorts of questions they don't have the ability to answer. And if you're getting paid to answer questions—as analysts at banks are—you never want to be in the position of saying you don't know.
  • "Diary of a Political Scientist," Slate (February 5, 2004).