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:
“Would I if I could by pushing a button would I kill five
thousand Chinamen if I could save my brother from
anything. Well I was very fond of my brother and I
could completely imagine his suffering and I replied
that five thousand Chinamen was something I could not
imagine and so it was not interesting. One has to
remember that about imagination, that is when the
world gets dull when everybody does not know what
they can or what they cannot really imagine.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“First you find a little thread, a little thread leads you to a string, and the string leads you to a rope. And from the rope you hang by the ... neck.”
—A.I. (Albert Isaac)