Hans Christian Andersen on bubbles

But, the bubble burst when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the whole kingdom to hear, that the Emperor had nothing on at all. He had no clothes.

~ Hans Christian Andersen

John Mackay: Is health care a "right?"

Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?

Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This "right" has never existed in America.

~ John Mackay, co-founder and CEO, Whole Foods Market Inc., "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare," The Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2009

Fred Hickey on Bernanke's claims that he is not monetizing the debt

I watch every week as tens of billions of dollars are created out of thin air by the Fed in order to purchase U.S. Treasuries and mortgage backed securities. While Bernanke claims that he's not monetizing our debt, it's like a kid sitting in front of an empty plate with chocolate frosting all over his face claiming that he didn't eat the cupcake.

~ Fred Hickey, The High-Tech Strategist, August 3, 2009

Murray Rothbard on Milton Friedman's brand of "free market economics"

Mention "free-market economics" to a member of the lay public and chances are that if he has heard the term at all, he identifies it completely with the name Milton Friedman. For several years, Professor Friedman has won continuing honors from the press and the profession alike, and a school of Friedmanites and "monetarists" has arisen in seeming challenge to the Keynesian orthodoxy.

However, instead of the common response of reverence and awe for "one of our own who has made it," libertarians should greet the whole affair with deep suspicion: "If he’s so devoted a libertarian, how come he’s a favorite of the Establishment?" An advisor of Richard Nixon and a friend and associate of most Administration economists, Friedman has, in fact, made his mark in current policy, and indeed reciprocates as a sort of leading unofficial apologist for Nixonite policy.

In fact, in this as in other such cases, suspicion is precisely the right response for the libertarian, for Professor Friedman’s particular brand of "free-market economics" is hardly calculated to ruffle the feathers of the powers-that-be. Milton Friedman is the Establishment’s Court Libertarian, and it is high time that libertarians awaken to this fact of life.

~ Murray Rothbard, "Milton Friedman Unraveled," article originally appeared in The Individualist in 1971, and was reprinted in the Journal of Libertarian Studies in the Fall 2002 issue

Jim Cramer: "Things are improving by the day"

Don't let the press confuse you. We are almost at Dow 9,400 because things are better than you think, and still improving by the day.

~ Jim Cramer, CNBC's Mad Money, August 13, 2009

Tim Geithner asks to raise debt ceiling

Congress has never failed to raise the debt limit when necessary. Because members of both parties have long recognized the need to keep politics away from this issue, these actions have traditionally received bipartisan support. This is clearly a moment in our history that calls for continuation of that tradition.

~ Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary, "Geithner asks Congress for higher U.S. debt limit", Washington Post, August 7, 2009

Health care reader

• “The Right to Health," Thomas Szasz, The Georgetown Law Journal, March 1969
• "The Trouble with Licensure," Murray Rothbard, The Free Market, August 1990
• "A Freer Market Can Cut Costs of Health Care," Larry Elder, Investor's Business Daily, November 26, 2007
• "Socialized Healthcare vs. The Laws of Economics," Thomas DiLorenzo, mises.org, July 28, 2009
• "Obama's Health-Care Snake Oil," Sheldon Richman, The Future of Freedom Foundation Commentaries, August 5, 2009
• "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare," John Mackay, The Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2009
• "Washington's Lies," Walter Williams, Townhall.com, September 2, 2009
• "Health Care 'Reformers' Duck the Hard Questions," Sheldon Richman, The Future of Freedom Foundation Commentaries, September 4, 2009
• "Medical Tourism Takes Flight," Leslie P. Norton, Barron's, September 7, 2009
• "A Modest Health-Care Proposal," Sheldon Richman, The Future of Freedom Foundation Commentaries, September 16, 2009
• "Obama, I Got Your Health Savings Right Here," James Foye, LewRockwell.com, September 19, 2009
• "Fable For Adults; Obama is Living in a Fantasy Land," Thomas Sowell, Washington Times, September 19, 2009