In my latest Loonie Politics column I argue that there is no “international law” in matters like drone strikes on terrorists because there are no international police, no international courts with legitimate jurisdiction, no real international statutes and no international jails.
In my latest Epoch Times column I say the danger a new pandemic poses to our crumbling health care system shows that getting incentives wrong isn’t some dry economic concept, it’s a clear and present danger to our health as well as our finances.
“in the seventeenth century, when men were just what they are now, except that they had no telephones nor airplanes.”
George Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism
“Unlike the case of Philosophy, where no answer to its question is ever possible, there must be an answer to the great question of Political Economy. How – so it first asked – does mankind produce enough goods for the wants of mankind? That has been answered long ago. How can mankind adjust its production so as not to oversatisfy some, undersatisfy others, and break down in the process? That has not been answered.”
Stephen Leacock "What is Left of Adam Smith?" in On the Front Line of Life
“Above all, we must insist, as against the utopian concepts, that a tolerable order of things is one of a proper balance between the social and the individual: that a human being is neither an ant nor a shark.”
Introduction in Robert Conquest Reflections on a Ravaged Century
“‘The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it.’ – Franklin P. Jones”
NCC Overview Winter 2002 [they had "nobody is there" but I believe this version is correct]
In my latest Loonie Politics column I ask how somebody as smart as Bill Morneau can be so idiotic about the nation’s finances.
“‘The prejudices of some political writers against shopkeepers and tradesmen, are altogether without foundation. So far is it from being necessary, either to tax them, or to restrict their numbers, that they can never be multiplied so as to hurt the public, though they may so as to hurt one another.’”
Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, quoted in H.B. Action The Morals of Markets and Related Essays.