Pushing On A String

Pushing on a string is a figure of speech for influence that is more effective in moving things in one direction than another – you can pull, but not push.

If something is connected to you by a string, you can move it toward you by pulling on the string, but you can't move it away from you by pushing on the string. It is often used in the context of economic policy, specifically the view that "Monetary policy asymmetric; it being easier to stop an expansion than to end a severe contraction."

Read more about Pushing On A String:  History, Monetary Policy

Famous quotes containing the words pushing and/or string:

    From the shrivelling gray
    silk of its cocoon
    a creature slowly
    is pushing out
    to stand clear....
    Denise Levertov (b. 1923)

    A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.
    Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)