May 27, 2016

Tho Bishop on Joseph Stiglitz selling government intervention as a "new innovative concept"

Last year, as chief economist for the Roosevelt Institute, [Joseph] Stiglitz called for “rewriting the rules of the American economy” in a crusade against income inequality. His policy recommendations include higher taxes, more “smarter” regulation, and having the Federal Reserve focus more on unemployment than keeping inflation low — a call for an even more activist Fed than we’ve had since 2008.

It is ironic that Stiglitz has chosen to brand his policy recommendations as some new innovative concept for the country, when it is simply doubling down on the interventionist policies that the nation has suffered from for over 100 years.

~ Tho Bishop, "Clinton Adviser, Nobel Prize Winning Economist Endorsed Venezuelan Socialism," Mises,org blog, May 23, 2016

May 15, 2016

Jeff Deist on why loss of faith in government is a positive sign

I'm convinced that this loss of faith in government is quantifiably different today.  This is not just our grandparents' sort of complaining about "let's throw all the bums out."  This is different; something's different in America today.  And really that's what our movement is all about, right?  It's helping people make the leap from where they already are, which is government isn't working, to where they need to be, which is government can't work.  At least certainly not a government of 320 million diverse people top-down style from Washington, DC.  It's an absurdity.

~ Jeff Deist, "Alt-Right vs. Socialist Left: What It Means for Liberty" @ 27:13, Mises Circle Houston, January 30, 2016

Jeff Deist on libertarian society

Now there's a lot of ways we might define a libertarian society (or more libertarian society), but one way we might define it is to say a libertarian society is a society where the great matters of the day - cultural, economic, social - are not decided by politics.  And I would suggest that we are heading in actually that direction.

 ~ Jeff Deist, "Alt-Right vs. Socialist Left: What It Means for Liberty" @ 26:37, Mises Circle Houston, January 30, 2016

May 12, 2016

Lew Rockwell on defending the rights of people whom society despises

It’s easy to defend the rights of people who are popular and whose views are in fashion. It is much more difficult – thankless, even – to defend the rights of those whom society despises. Libertarians need not endorse or actually be such people – I know of no one proposing such a thing – but if we do not defend their rights we are frauds.

~ Lew Rockwell, "What Libertarianism Is, and Isn't," March 31, 2014, LewRockwell.com

May 10, 2016

Lew Rockwell on the cause of freedom, truth and lies, and smearing of entrepreneurs

Is the cause of freedom, private property, sound money, and - to be moderate - taking a meat axe to the government and all its works - irretrievably lost?  Do we have to sit back and accept a form of economic and social Marxism?

NEVER.

And why is that?  Because the truth, no matter how seemingly battered and bruised, still shines through.  It can never be wiped out, no matter how rotten the regime.  In the end, the truth will triumph over deceit.

Our opponents are the party of lies.  Lies about economics, history, and political philosophy.  Lies about the Fed and other government chains on society.  Lies about the nature of the state and its deeds.  Lies about the heroes to be admired and emulated, and the villains to be despised.

In the media and the classroom, entrepreneurs are smeared as greedy and destructive, when in fact they are heroes, essential to human flourishing.  Instead, we are supposed to worship politicians and officials who are no better than common thieves.  Yet far more destructive.

~ Lew Rockwell, April 26, 2016



May 7, 2016

Sara Blakely on failure

My dad encouraged us to fail.  Growing up, he would ask us what we failed at that week.  If we didn't have something, he would be disappointed. It changed my mindset at an early age that failure is not the outcome - failure is not trying.

~ Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx