Thomas Sowell on why the elites hate the free market

One of the problems with the market from the standpoint of those who think that they are the brightest, the best, and ought to be telling the rest of us groundlings what to do, is that the market allows ordinary people to go out there and make their own decisions.  And people who think they have the Truth and the Light don't want that; they want no part of that.  It's really what they hate most, I think, about a market system.

~ Thomas Sowell, "Interview with Thomas Sowell," Reason, December, 1980

Jordan Schachtel on the lassez faire approach to the coronavirus

There’s something about human nature that causes people in power to want to “do something” when faced with an unknown problem.  Yet sometimes, doing nothing is better than “doing something.”  When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more evidence is emerging that the laissez-faire approach to the issue — at least on a governmental/”public health” level — was the solution all along.  The path chosen by Sweden, Belarus and a select few nations — which put the power in the hands of individuals to make their own health choices, instead of imposing draconian government edicts — appears to have won the day.  With almost two years of data now in our hands, it sure seems that the ruling class has a lot to answer for.

~ Jordan Schachtel, "Freedom Won the Lockdown Battle," Brownstone Institute, September 28, 2021

Murray Rothbard on the correct policy for ending a depression

If government wishes to see a depression ended as quickly as possible, and the economy returned to normal prosperity, what course should it adopt? The first and clearest injunction is: don’t interfere with the market’s adjustment process. The more the government intervenes to delay the market’s adjustment, the longer and more grueling the depression will be, and the more difficult will be the road to complete recovery.

~ Murray Rothbard, America's Great Depression (1963), p. 19

Laura Tyson blasts the "free market frenzy" of the 1980s

The free-market frenzy in the United States during the past decade demonstrates some of the pitfalls of unregulated capitalism.

~ Laura Tyson, Los Angeles Times, January 1990

Jim Cramer on financial regulation

This laissez faire really has killed us.

~ Jim Cramer, as appeared on CNBC interviewing Rep. Barney Frank, January 21, 2010

Herbert Hoover denies laissez-faire credentials

Those who contended that during the period of my administration our economic system was one of laissez faire have little knowledge of the extent of government regulation. The economic philosophy of laissez faire, or "dog eat dog," had died in the United States forty years before, when Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Sherman Anti-Trust Acts.

~ Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency 1920-1933 (London: Hollis and Carter, 1952), p. 300

Henry David Thoreau on government vs. business

Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. 

~ Henry David Thoreau