Benjamin Franklin on writing

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Jeff Bezos on keeping an open mind

Anybody who doesn’t change their mind a lot is dramatically underestimating the complexity of the world we live in.

~ Jeff Bezos

Jerome Powell on the CARES Act

We won't run out of money.

~ Jerome Powell, "Powell urges Congress to unleash 'great fiscal power' to defeat coronavirus, repair economy," The Hill, April 29, 2020

Bill Maher on how Gen Z sees socialism

When I hear people nowadays, fact-free, if you look at Gen Z, a lot of them think "maybe communism, be good to give that another try."  They just don't understand, because they have this idea in their head that if something happened before they were alive, what does it matter?  It didn't really happen.  But stuff did happen.  Stuff did happen.  I know you weren't around for it, but it really did and other people noticed it and we learned that lesson.  Communism doesn't work and it makes people very cynical.

~ Bill Maher, "Here's Why Russia Invaded Ukraine, w/ Bill Maher and Ben Shapiro," The Ben Shapiro Show, 9:50 mark, March 14, 2022

Kevin Duffy on how the socialist sees inequality and wealth creation

Inequality is a blessing, not a problem.  Without it, specialization and trade (the division of labor) would not take place.  Trade, as long as it’s peaceful and voluntary, is mutually beneficial, win-win.  In other words, the more the merrier.  When the division of labor expands, good things happen, i.e. wealth increases. 

Of course, the distribution of this wealth will be uneven, depending on how adept individuals are at serving others.  But there’s nothing nefarious going on here.  In fact, entrepreneurs should be celebrated as they are the key drivers of human progress. 

Sadly, this is not how the socialist sees the world.  Instead, he sees a zero sum game, win-lose.  He assumes that those who accumulate great wealth must have stolen it from those who ended up with far less.  How, precisely, this theft takes place (when all transactions are voluntary), he can’t explain. 

Instead of forming a theory that models reality, the socialist bends reality to fit his theory. This is a fatal error, wreaking havoc on mankind, justifying government theft (win-lose) to correct an injustice that never existed.

~ Kevin Duffy, Quora answer, March 24, 2022

Kim Iskayan on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Very rarely are things as bad as they appear in the here and now...  What we always see is that, yes, there is an adjustment period, but human beings are incredibly resourceful and resilient and antifragile and flexible, so markets adjust, people adjust.  Right now it feels pretty awful, and of course it's heartbreaking to see some of what's happening, but I think that 3 months from now this will be like, "yeah, that sucked."  And maybe it's still going on, but it's nowhere near as bad.

~ Kim Iskyan, "The Risks Have Yet to Come Home to Roost," Stansberry Investor Hour, 55:30 mark, March 14, 2022

Jeffrey Tucker on the military industrial complex and external enemies

In foreign relations, here we are today: the US is in a de facto but undeclared war with Russia.  No one calls it that, but that’s what it amounts to when the US is providing armaments through intermediaries to the forces that Russia is battling on its border.  This intensifies and escalates conflict, same as sanctions.  The dangers right now are intense, on all fronts.  It’s not clear that decision makers even understand what they are doing. 

Or maybe they do.  Since the end of the Cold War, the US military-industrial complex has been searching for a reliable enemy that the US population could hate, as a way to distract from the misdeeds of the political elite at home.  After decades of cycling through them, it appears that the old enemy was the best enemy.  And with a small turn of a dial, vast swaths of high-end opinion are exclusively focused on the terrible plight of Ukraine.

~ Jeffrey Tucker, "How Seventy Years of Progress Came to an End," Brownstone Institute, March 11, 2022