“Laissez faire has never been more than a slogan in defense of the proposition that every extension of state activity should be examined under a presumption of error.”
Aaron Director, quoted by Robert Bork in The Tempting of America
In my contribution to the National Post’s 20th anniversary section, I celebrate the freedom the paper has given its writers to express conservative opinions and respect the intelligence of our readers.
“we [should] form the term catallaxy to describe the object of the science we generally call economics, which then, following Whately, itself ought to be called catallactics… I am convinced that its more general adoption might really contribute to the clarity of our discussion.”
Friedrich Hayek The Fatal Conceit [Whately is Church of Ireland Archbishop Richard Whately, who evidently made the suggestion in 1838]
In my latest National Post column I say the first step toward an effective foreign policy is to abandon illusions about the effectiveness of “soft power” without something hard behind it.