Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Daphne Posadas
“Milei has been called many things, but his methods and philosophy thrive under scrutiny. In a free society, being questioned is both a challenge and an opportunity. What sets Milei apart is his ability to answer tough questions with logic, evidence, and, most importantly, results. His anarchist rhetoric is — as he said — rooted in a libertarianism that has an ‘unrestricted respect for the life project of others based on the principle of non-aggression and in defense of the rights to life, liberty, and property,’ a definition championed by Alberto Benegas Lynch, Jr., and that follows John Locke’s ideas. Milei’s reforms haven’t gone unnoticed in the U.S., especially after the announcement of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.” (11/20/24)
“Reelecting the Insurrectionist who provoked the January 6 attack is a monumental dereliction of civic duty by the American people. Donald Trump was provided a plurality mandate — enough of a match for him to burn America down. The electorate affirmed that the worst human being to hold the presidency deserves a second turn in the job. Despite Trump being eight years older and obviously losing his mind; despite the fact that he ran a corrosive campaign on naked malevolence; and despite his having promised to mass arrest, cage, and deport immigrants, Americans rewarded him with ultimate power. Toward the end of the 2024 election, the candidates made their closing arguments. Trump painted the United States as a dark, terrifying and infested place, festering with pet-eating immigrants, violent criminals, and deviant trans people.” (11/21/24)
“This month’s election was not just a defeat for the Democrats. It was the end of the Democratic Party as we know it. The one conclusion that everybody seems to share in common is that the Democrats, to reconstitute themselves, need to make some bold moves. But almost nobody has any idea what those bold moves are.” (11/20/24)
“While science can be used to influence policy outcomes in a potentially helpful way (eg, a carbon tax can be used to reduce CO2 emissions and fight global warming), the tail can come to wag the dog, too. Policies can be asserted and scientific justifications sought after the fact. Consequently, this can lead to a game of ‘whack-a-mole’ where a rotating list of (often contradictory) justifications are floated and discarded as situations warrant. In turn, actual policy discussions go nowhere because goal posts are constantly shifting. In short, expert opinion becomes about justifying a preferred policy rather than policy attempting to solve a given problem and seeing expert opinion to help.” (11/20/24)
“Of the television commentators who routinely disparaged, attacked, demeaned, and mocked former President Donald Trump and his supporters, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’, belong to the ‘A’ team. Yet, after Trump’s extraordinary victory two weeks ago, including a sweep of all seven swing states and becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years, Scarborough and Brzezinski visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election, spending a reported 90 minutes with the president-elect. As for why they made the trek, Brzezinski said: ‘For those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, ‘Why wouldn’t we?’ … the most likely reason: ratings. Since Trump’s victory, which several MSNBC hosts predicted would not happen, the channel’s primetime viewership is down a whopping 53%. By contrast, Fox’s ratings are up 38%.” (11/21/24)
“When ‘nuclear-loving greens’ demand innovation, they imply something is wrong with current reactors, and slow down climate policy. This needs to stop.” [editor’s note: That’s an easy trade to make. Let the current reactor operators give up their massive government (Price-Anderson) insurance subsidy and the market will establish who’s right – TLK] (11/20/24)
“Flashing back twenty years ago, I was a fairly typical self-described libertarian, and as such I used to describe myself as broadly ‘Austrian’ in philosophy. My attraction to Austrian economics had little to do with actually understanding it, but instead related to my perception of what Austrians represented in the broad debates about economic policy. In my mind, they were the rebellious champions of free markets and individual liberty doing battle against the mindless orthodoxy of Keynesian interventionist thought in economics and government. They were the challengers of conventional wisdom, and didn’t play nice in the sandbox with others. A perfect fit for my youthful non-conformism. In actuality, though, my grasp of economic theory was quite superficial.” (11/20/24)
“Democrats are hitting every pressure point in their post-election analysis — every decision Harris should have made but didn’t, every policy choice she should have clarified before Republicans could define her. I’ve been struck by how little they’ve cited Gaza, and the demand that Harris break with her administration to end arms shipments to Israel. The anti-war left wanted a change in policy; failing that, it wanted Democrats to look over the 2024 wreckage and realize that it could have been prevented had they forced an end to the war. That is not the lesson Democrats took away, and Trump’s first foreign policy hires — Marco Rubio at State, Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel — emboldened angry liberals who wanted to tell protest voters that Trump had duped them.” (11/20/24)
