History
According to Roger G. Sandilans and John Harold Wood the phrase was introduced by Congressman T. Alan Goldsborough in 1935, supporting Federal Reserve chairman Marriner Eccles in Congressional hearings on the Banking Act of 1935:
- Governor Eccles: Under present circumstances, there is very little, if any, that can be done.
- Congressman Goldsborough: You mean you cannot push on a string.
- Governor Eccles: That is a very good way to put it, one cannot push on a string. We are in the depths of a depression and... beyond creating an easy money situation through reduction of discount rates, there is very little, if anything, that the reserve organization can do to bring about recovery.
The phrase is, however, often attributed to John Maynard Keynes: "As Keynes pointed out, it's like pushing on a string...", "This is what Keynes meant by the phrase 'Pushing on a string.'"
The phrase is also used in regard to asymmetrical influence in other contexts; for example, in 1976 a labor statistician, writing in the New York Times about Carter's policies, wrote that
- in today's economy, reducing unemployment by stimulating employment has become more and more like pushing on a string.
Read more about this topic: Pushing On A String
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