Interventionism

Recorded on 4 December 2010 in Rochester, New York.

The case of Terri Schiavo is almost as controversial as it is tragic.The controversy? Her husband is adamant that the doctors pull the plug on Terri, and her parents are just as determined to keep her alive.

QE2 is a direct response to deficit spending, which obliges the government to issue more bonds. With QE2, the Fed supports the state by buying these bonds. The Fed thereby actively helps the government in its Keynesian policies, which disrupt recovery.

Diminished preparedness for severe weather events should surprise nobody. The airport industry is one of the most regulated and intervened-in sectors worldwide, and it is not uncommon for governments to own the airports outright, leasing or licensing the facilities out to favored operators.

Prohibition and the New Deal are alike in their professed intention. Both assumed the guise of disinterested benevolence towards the body politic.

Our health and living standards have virtually nothing to do with charity and virtually everything to do with entrepreneurs solving problems. Had we depended on only alms and goodwill to elevate our living standards, we would still be squatting in mud huts.

Prohibition and the New Deal are alike in their professed intention. Both assumed the guise of disinterested benevolence towards the body politic. We are judged incapable of setting up an adequate social defense against vicious rum-sellers and malefactors of great wealth.

Paul Krugman took a macro forecast from Mark Zandi, and then after the fact compared it to the actual trajectory of GDP. Krugman concluded that Keynesian theory was vindicated, when in fact the results are more in line with what the critics predicted would happen.

As a developer, I do not hire an employee before I have conceived of a construction activity that will earn me a decent return. I hire an employee when I have a productive need for his services.

When I vote for the candidate who promises me betterment in my economic condition, I am condoning and encouraging some form of robbery. That does not square with my moral values.