animal spirits
Noun
Meaning
(medicine, now historical) The theorized ‘spirits’ or physiological principles which allowed for sensation and voluntary movement. [from 15th c.]
Liveliness, vivacity, a happy tendency to action. [from 18th c.]
(economics) After Keynes (citation 1936, above), the emotional and intuitive factors that drive business decisions whether to make investment gambles. [from 20th c.]
Source: en.wiktionary.orgSynonyms
Examples
Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.
But public works, economic protectionism, cheap money, 'deficit-financed government spending,' and 'the animal spirits of the spendthrift' in the service of boosting 'consumption demand'... Doesn't Keynesianism simply appeal to the worst in human nature?
A capitalist economy hums when leading businessmen are bubbling with animal spirits and are prepared to sink their money into risky ventures.
Until Americans feel that their core asset - their homes - are stabilized, they are not going to have the animal spirits and they will continue to have less buying power.
Vampires get the joy of flying around and living forever, werewolves get the joy of animal spirits. But zombies, they're not rich, or aristocratic, they shuffle around. They're a group phenomenon, they're not very fast, they're quite sickly. So what's the pleasure of being one?
Right now, the animal spirits pervading businesses in Guyana are driven by the feeling these yahoos in Government don’t know their ass from their elbow when it comes to investment.