Samizdata

Most of academic economics is polluted by the dangerous notion of ‘perfect competition’. It is dangerous because it is so utterly unlike the real world. Capitalism’s great duty is the taking of risks. Success is measured not so much by the virtues of the product but its place in a subtle flux of prices and alternatives. Perfect competition, with its associated poetry of ‘equilibrium’ is a romantic folly.
– John Blundell, Institute of Economic Affairs

Welcome to Samizdata.net, a place where reality gives us an unfair advantage.
– Brian Micklethwait

No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
– The Magna Carta (1215)

They ask why we don’t get rid of Mugabe, why not the Burmese lot? Yes, let’s get rid of them all. I don’t because I can’t, but when you can, you should.
– Tony Blair in Sir Peter Stothard’s book about Downing Street during the war

The Conservative Party wishes to liberate both our society and the individuals within it from the all-encompassing claims of a State that is still believed by some to be able to reap miracles.
– Oliver Letwin MP, seen by many as the chief architect of future Conservative Party policy

Sometimes, late at night when the cheese and port have hit the table and conversation has taken a lubricated turn toward the candid, the odd dinner guest at the Billabong is sometimes heard to remark that the Professor is a paranoid troglodyte who sees conspiracies where none exist. These remarks seldom surprise since, sadly, we live in a society that insists, and does so despite all evidence to the contrary, that intrusive government and its stickybeak agents are forces for the common good. Well, everyone is entitled to an opinion, so the Professor merely smiles, denies the charge, offers another glass of sauterne — and makes a mental note to write an anonymous letter to the Australian Taxation Office suggesting that his critical guest be ruthlessly investigated for dodging taxes. True, that prescription is a harsh antidote to innocence, but after the tax man has probed every nook and cranny of a blameless citizen’s financial affairs, the light bulb generally goes on. Government, they suddenly realise, ain’t their friend, not by any stretch of the imagination.

— mysterious but always enjoyable Australian blogger Professor Bunyip. He’s quite right, but if he writes an anonymous letter to the tax office suggesting I be investigated, he ain’t my friend by any stretch of the imagination either.

(Link via Scott Wickstein).