… is from page 25 of the 1982 Economics Nobel laureate George Stigler‘s May 1960 American Economic Review paper, “The Influence of Events and Policies on Economic Theory,” as reprinted in Stigler’s 1965 collection, Essays in the History of Economics:
Policies designed to lessen income inequality emerged during a period when market forces were making substantial contributions to this end, and a similar relationship between policy and events is found in hours of labor, provision of education, the development of domestic manufacturing, etc. Here policy rides on the wave of events, although often it makes impudent claims to leadership.