Quotes of the day

Milton Friedman stood for freedom, social, political, and economic. He realized that they are inextricably linked. If the government controls your job or your business, dissent is impossible. He favored, among other things, legalizing drugs, school choice, and volunteer army. To call him or his political legacy “right wing” is simply ignorant, and I mean that also as a technically accurate description rather than an insult.

So here’s my question: If you’re embarrassed by this legacy, if you worry that it will tarnish the University’s reputation, just what is it that you good-thinking guys and gals have against human freedom?--John Cochrane

For most of the year, it is the duty of the press to scour the known universe looking for ways to ruin your day. The more fear, guilt or angst a news story induces, the better.--John Tierney

Although I remain optimistic, I do fear that interest group pressures toward a much larger role of government in the United States may become much harder to resist in the future, and that this could eventually kill, or at least badly wound, the free market-entrepreneurial goose that has been laying the golden eggs.--Gary Becker

And yet, like Charlie Brown getting ready to kick a football, we seem to have an infinite capacity to believe that it will be different this time. We think that the next top-down design introduced by government will work fine, it will never degrade, and we won't find ourselves ten or twenty years down the road wondering how such a mess was created.--Arnold Kling

It’s not globalization or immigration or computers per se that widen inequality. It’s the skills gap. Boosting educational attainment at the bottom is more promising than trying to reorganize the global economy.--David Brooks

So even by the authors' calculations you would expect twice as many men as women in engineering PhD programs due to math-ability differences alone (compare with the media reports above). But what the author's don't tell you is that the gender ratio will get larger the higher the percentile.--Alex Tabarrok

If The Nation was demanding a repeal of the postal monopoly on delivery of first-class mail, I'd be firmly in their camp. But as best as I can tell, they want to keep the postal monopoly, and have the rest of the country subsidize them. And all this to preserve a print magazine that could easily go all-digital. Doesn't The Nation have any real muck left to rake? --Bryan Caplan

Remember how Democrats put the collapse of Enron and the subsequent losses to shareholders at the feet of the Bush White House? Freddie and Fannie are like Enron on steroids. There's a well-documented history of accounting corruption to benefit senior management; hundreds of millions of dollars spent lobbying against oversight and reform; and myriad connections to both Democratic committee chairmen and subprime lender Countrywide Financial.--Dick Armey

HIGH ENERGY prices can bring out the best in people and firms, but they often seem to bring out the worst in politicians. Whether or not greed is good, there is plenty to be said for a little thriftiness.

Politicians seem to have an irresistible urge to intervene whenever voters start suffering from higher prices, but usually those interventions do more harm than good.

Consumers have the ability to make wise decisions if they face prices that accurately reflect costs. Firms have just as much ability to innovate in ways that will attract thrifty buyers. High prices may be painful, but they convey a key nugget of information: Energy is scarce; use it wisely. If the government uses tax policy to artificially reduce energy prices, then the government will only deter private individuals from appropriate conservation.--Ed Glaeser