Albert Einstein quotes regarding compound interest?

Answer 1

Einstein is widely rumored to have once said that "the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest" (or its variant, "compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.")

(http://www.allsoulsnyc.org/publications/sermons/ggsermons/compound-interest.html)

While this rumor lacks any verifiable basis, he is credited with discovering the compound interest of Rule 72 and was documented to have said something almost as compelling : that "it is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time."

(http://www.ruleof72.net/rule-of-72-einstein.asp)

Depending on the source, Albert Einstein referred to compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world, the human race's greatest invention, or the most powerful force of the universe.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_interest)

Answer 2

In the book "The Million Dollar Car and $250,000 Pizza"
by Allyson Lewis (page 21), Bob Teagarden notes:

"A reporter once asked Albert Einstein, 'What do you consider the greatest invention of all time?' The good doctor thought only a few seconds and then replied, 'Compound interest.' I'm sure the reporter thought himself the victim of some sort of genius humor and that he had failed to catch the punch line. However, a little thought about Einstein's answer reveals that none of the great inventions of the world would have benefited mankind without the working capital generated from compound interest. We all enjoy the benefits of compound interest every day!"

I haven't found the actual report, but this scenario sounds more like Albert Einstein than any expanded version of the quote I have read.

Answer 3

Einstein Compound Interest

Answer 4

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RE:
Albert Einstein quotes regarding compound interest?

Answer 5

Albert Einstein is supposed to have said that compound interest was the eighth wonder of the world. Or the greatest mathematical formula of all. Or something to that effect.

I strongly suspect that either Einstein was making a little joke, or that he never said it at all and that it has become a much-repeated urban myth that sounds good to people who are essentially innumerate (illiterate in mathematics).

Like the debunking site snopes.com says, no source is ever given for the quote, and the first known appearance of it is in a New York Times article of 1983 (Einstein died in 1955).

But above all is the relative [no pun] banality of the arithmetic of compound interest to a physicist of Einstein's stature. I am an econ major, and I didn't learn how to calculate compound interest in Micro1A, as a freshman. And I didn't learn it in high school econ. I learned how to calculate compound interest in grade school - in the 6th or 7th grade at the latest.