Free Markets

"The modern notion that the acts of a political council have, as such, better moral foundation than the acts of the stock exchange is of course nonsense."

"But if peace meant disaster to the company, it also taught it an important lesson. A company that manufactured more rifles than it could sell to hunters, or to its own government, must seek foreign business."

"What if the management is done by the government? Then we abandon the realm of service and enter into the realm of policy."

"The London merchants were not, however, content with free-market development, and power began to move in on the market. Specifically, the London merchants began to reach for export monopoly."

"When something becomes illegal, consumer demand does not vanish."

Today, as always, the general citizenry needs to understand economic principles and to recognize economic fallacies.

It happens in every single economic exchange that is undertaken by virtue of human choice. Both sides benefit.

"It is vain, however, to call simply for clearer statutory definitions of monopolistic practice. For the vagueness of the law results from the impossibility of laying down a cogent definition of monopoly on the market."

That will give the FTC far greater power to block mergers than the statutory text or Supreme Court precedents permit.

"It's hard to be a contrarian. With the bubble in full bloom, the last thing you want to tell the boys at the club is that you have your money in cash or gold."