Kevin Duffy on the trend towards big government

To keep the game going, the political class has increasingly relied on borrowing, inflation and diversions like victimology, Covid and climate change.  “War is the health of the state” needs updating.  The modern state has evolved, learning the lesson that any conflict feeds the Leviathan.  Conflict is not limited to “us vs. them” and “good vs. evil,” but left vs. right, black vs. white, male vs. female, straight vs. LGBTQ, rich vs. poor, entrepreneurs vs. employees, young vs. old and even man vs. the planet.  Wars have morphed into abstractions, e.g. war on poverty, war on drugs, war on terrorism and now a war on a virus.  The justifications for protecting party A against the predations of party B are endless.

~ Kevin Duffy, "Inflection Points: Where the big money is made," The Coffee Can Portfolio, September 18, 2022

Marios Hadjikyriacos on big government fighting the coronavirus

The overwhelming firepower from governments and central banks was enough to fight the pandemic, but not enough to annihilate it.

~ Marios Hadjikyriacos, senior investment analyst at XM, "Dow skids 600 points lower as spread of delta variant rattles Wall Street," MarketWatch.com, July 19, 2021

Tim Carney on the symbiotic relationship between Big Business and government

Big business and big government are not enemies that a lot of people think they are...  When government gets bigger, whether it's through spending or taxes or regulation, the big guys - big business - benefits.

~ Tim Carney, "John Stossel: Big Business Loves Big Government," YouTube, 0:05 mark, July 6, 2021

The New York Times admits that government protects Big Business from smaller competitors

The economy suffers from a lack of fair competition, many economists believe.  Large corporations are often able to increase profits not by providing better products than their rivals but instead by being so big that they exercise power over workers and consumers.  The government also plays a role, through policies that protect existing companies at the expense of start-ups and new entrants into an industry.

~ The New York Times, July 9, 2021

Robert Higgs on the limits of government

The willingness of citizens to tolerate costs, which must be borne if the policies are to be carried out, declines as costs rise... Even the (initially) most popular war loses support as casualties mount, tax burdens rise, and military appetites consume more of the resources needed to produce civilian goods and services.  Government officials know that the citizens have limits.  Pushing them beyond the limits jeopardizes not only the success of the policies but the very survival of governments.

~ Robert Higgs, Crisis and Leviathan, pp. 64-65

Nick Gillespie on the big spending Trump administration

Last week, The New York Times published an eye-opening tally of how much more the federal government is spending on each of us since Donald Trump was elected president.  "Total federal spending has increased by $1,441 per person since 2016,"... to a grand total of $14,652 per person per year.  They came to their numbers by looking at actual federal outlays "for the 2016 fiscal year, adjusting for inflation and population changes" and comparing them to the budgeted amounts for the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30.

This revelation—which has generated a scant 45 comments as of this writing on five days after publication—should discomfit both Republicans and Democrats and conservatives and liberals/progressives. And it should absolutely enrage libertarians who believe in smaller government...

~ Nick Gillespie, "How Much More Should Trump be Spending on You?," Reason.com, February 16, 2020

Lysander Spooner on the intersection of money and government

The love of money is the root of all evil.  And it is omnipotent government which is best able to carry out the evil plans of those who love money.

~ Lysander Spooner

Judge Napolitano on the nature of government

Unless you work for it, sell to it, or receive financial assistance from it, the government is not your friend.  For average Americans today, the state is predator not protector.

~ Judge Andrew Napolitano, Constitutional Chaos

Ron Paul on Alexander Hamilton

Hamilton is the architect of big government in America.

~ Ron Paul, from the forward to How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America, by Brion McClanahan

Kevin Duffy on virtuous and vicious cycles

Just as giving is the virtuous cycle of life, coercion is the vicious cycle.  If the largest coercive institution, by far, is government, why do often the most privately giving people tolerate and even promote Big Government?

~ Kevin Duffy

Phil Duffy on Big Government

We are building a skyscraper of legislation on the shifting sands of judicial opinion.

~ Philip Duffy

Barack Obama on the size of government

The question that we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.

~ President Barack Obama, inaugural address, 2009

Kevin Duffy on the two-party system and its power-grabbing ploys

Have you noticed how the Dems overwhelmingly support Bernanke’s reappointment, yet the Reps are split and providing decent opposition? It follows the rule that the party in power acts to preserve the status quo (big government) while the party out of power “acts” responsibly in order to regain power.

~ Kevin Duffy, Bearing Asset Management, January 29, 2010