“What is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order? On certain familiar assumptions the answer is simple enough. If we possess all the relevant information, if we can start out from a given system of preferences, and if we command complete knowledge of available means, then problem which remains is purely one of logic.... This, however, is emphatically not the economic problem which society faces.”

Friedrich Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” American Economic Review, 35 (January 1945)

In my latest National Post column I say the deep ideas the government solicited about preserving the welfare state regardless of what it actually does or what's going on around it seem to miss the point.

"'popular economist’ is a contradiction in terms. Economics has never been – and perhaps never can be – popular because it is the study of what people actually do rather than what they profess to do or recommend that others do. It lays bare hypocrisy and dwells far too gloomily on the ‘unintended results’ to which so many fine-sounding policies fall prey."

Peter Foster in Financial Post May 2, 2006

“The question which moral system was the best depends principally on the question whether the heathen philosophers or the Christian preachers were right in their estimate of the facts. To suppose that Christian morals can ever survive the downfall of the great Christian doctrine is as absurd as to suppose that a yearly tenant will feel towards his property like a tenant in fee simple.”

James Fitzjames Stephen, “Note on Utilitarianism” postscript to Stephen's book Liberty Equality Fraternity