Hillary Clinton, First 2016 presidential debate Transcript, Washington Post (September 26, 2016)

Let's stop for a second and remember where we were eight years ago. We had the worst financial crisis, the Great Recession, the worst since the 1930s. That was in large part because of tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy, failed to invest in the middle class, took their eyes off of Wall Street, and created a perfect storm. In fact, Donald (Trump) was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis. He said, back in 2006, "Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money." Well, it did collapse. ... We have come back from that abyss. And it has not been easy. So we're now on the precipice of having a potentially much better economy, but the last thing we need to do is to go back to the policies that failed us in the first place.

— Hillary Clinton on Great Recession

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Let's stop for a second and remember where we were eight years ago. We had the worst financial crisis, the Great Recession, the worst since the 1930s. That was in large part because of tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy, failed to invest in the middle class, took their eyes off of Wall Street, and created a perfect storm. In fact, Donald (Trump) was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis. He said, back in 2006, "Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money." Well, it did collapse. ... We have come back from that abyss. And it has not been easy. So we're now on the precipice of having a potentially much better economy, but the last thing we need to do is to go back to the policies that failed us in the first place." in the context of "Hillary Clinton, First 2016 presidential debate Transcript, Washington Post (September 26, 2016)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Great Recession" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 05, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Hillary Clinton

About Hillary Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born 26 October 1947) is a former United States secretary of state, U.S. senator, and First Lady of the United States. From 2009 to 2013, she was the 67th secretary of state, serving under President Barack Obama. She previously represented New York state in the Senate (2001 to 2009). Before that, as the wife of President Bill Clinton, she was First Lady from 1993 to 2001. In the 2008 election, Clinton was a leading candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. In 2016, she became the first female candidate to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. Clinton lost the presidential election to Donald Trump on November 8, 2016.