In my latest National Post column I argue that while history doesn't repeat, its lessons do... especially for those not paying attention. (Due to an editing mishap, at the end of the 3rd paragraph, between the sentence ending "great and small." and the one beginning "Regrettably, as with...", the sentence "But I am sure we’re not going to fight World War One again." was omitted.)
"what Milton Friedman called TANSTAAFL – 'There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.'" William C. Mitchell and Randy T. Simmons, Beyond Politics: Markets, Welfare, and the Failure of Bureaucracy
"Sam Spade: Ten thousand? We were talking about a lot more money than this. Kasper Gutman: Yes, sir, we were, but this is genuine coin of the realm. With a dollar of this, you can buy ten dollars of talk." The Maltese Falcon
Wrapping up 2016 and looking forward to 2017, a word of thanks to all those who made our documentary work possible in the past year.
"This book argues that our civilization depends, not only for its origin but also for its preservation, on what can be precisely described only as the extended order of human cooperation, an order more commonly, if somewhat misleadingly, known as capitalism." First sentence in Friedrich Hayek The Fatal Conceit
"Sow a thought and you reap an act;/ Sow an act and you reap a habit;/ Sow a habit and you reap a character;/ Sow a character and you reap a destiny." "Anonymous" quoted by Michael Novak in Business as a Calling
"I don’t think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble." Agatha Christie (quoted as Thought du jour in "Social Studies" in Globe and Mail August 6, 2001)
"Men do not become sinless by receiving a post in a bureaucracy." G.K. Chesterton in "Preface to Divorce vs. Democracy" quoted in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 19 #8 (July-August 2016)