Anniversary of Bastiat's Birth

The Quotable Bastiat

"The State is also subject to Malthus’s Law. It tends to exceed the level of its means of existence, it expands in line with its means and what keeps it in existence is the substance of the people. Misfortune thus afflicts those peoples who cannot limit the sphere of action of the State. Freedom, private activity, wealth, well-being, independence and dignity will all disappear."

Via http://bastiat.net/en/

A Radical Obesity Hypothesis

Part One: Where food is hard to get, expensive, and it tastes bad, very few people get fat.

Part Two: Where food is plentiful, affordable, and it tastes good, lots of people get fat.

What Went Wrong at BP

"BP put form over substance and took their eye off the ball. Beyond Petroleum was a failed corporate strategy that resulted in heedless, dumb cost-cutting that put profits losses ahead of people and the environment.

Reality can be a harsh mistress. BP went after an environmental fad, basked in the glow of the Left environmental movement, and now may have destoyed itself in the process. As with Enron, another ‘progressive’ ‘green’ company, the Left environmentalists got what they deserved.

If only John Browne had given a Lee Raymond-type speech and had conducted BP’s business in the manner of its more reality-grounded brethren. The blame for the fatal attraction goes deep, and it lands at the doorstep of the mainstream environmental movement that got BP into greenwashing."

Rob Bradley, at MasterResource, a free-market energy blog.

Markets Are Like Wives

Markets are like wives. They will tell you what to do, but you won't always like what you hear.

The Conversation by Henri Matisse, 1908-1912. Source: State Hermitage Museum

The Free Dictionary

Organized Crime noun [awr-guh-nahyzd krahym]

1. Interstate theft that occurs within a centrally controlled formal structure.

2. The people and the groups involved in such criminal activities; e.g., the Mafia in Sicily and the Legislature in the United States.