Give Me a Break!
Competition
Give Me a Break!
Competition
by John Stossel
John Stossel is the hosts of Stossel on Fox Business and the author of Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong. Copyright 2009 by JFS Productions, Inc. Distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc.
“Choice, competition, reducing costs—those
are the things that I want to see accomplished [...]
Arrogance
It’s crazy for a group of mere mortals to try to design 15 percent of the U.S. economy. It’s even crazier to do it in a few months.
Yet that is what some members of Congress presumed to do. They intended, as the New York Times put it, “to reinvent the nation’s health care system.”
Let that [...]
Competition Would Save Medicine, Too
Competition so regularly brings us better stuff—cars, phones, shoes, medicine—that we’ve come to expect it. We complain on the rare occasion the supermarket doesn’t carry a particular ice-cream flavor. We just assume the store will have 30,000 items, that it will be open 24/7, and that the food will be fresh and cheap.
I take it [...]
The Fatal Conceit
The politicians are confident that they can wisely spend trillions of your dollars. The arrogance of the political class is stunning.
17Jun2009 | John Stossel | 9 comments | ContinuedReal Jobs Create Wealth
If the government’s projects were truly worthwhile, they would be undertaken by private efforts, and in their quest for profits, entrepreneurs would handle them more efficiently.
Remember this when President Obama begins to boast about how successful his stimulus plan is.
21May2009 | John Stossel | 9 comments | ContinuedMaking a Bad Bill Worse
How do you make a dreadfully bad piece of legislation—the nearly $800-billion so-called “stimulus” bill—worse? Simple: Add protectionism.
The “Buy American” provision of the stimulus bill, which mandates the use of domestic iron, steel, and manufactured goods even if imports are cheaper, makes our trading partners nervous. That created a problem for President Obama: “I think [...]
Madoff is a Piker
Bernard Madoff, who stands accused of bilking sophisticated investors out of $50 billion, reportedly told two of his executives that his business was “a giant Ponzi scheme.”
Perpetrators of Ponzi schemes lead clients to believe their money is invested and that their profits are the fruits of the money manager’s savvy. But in fact the “profits” [...]
Government Sets Us Up for the Next Bust
If an athlete injures himself and suffers great pain, we recognize the shortsightedness of giving him painkillers to keep him going. The pain might be masked, but at the risk of greater injury later.
That’s a good analogy for the inflationary policies now pursued by Washington. These policies may temporarily “stimulate the economy,” but they also [...]
What Happened to Market Discipline?
During the late presidential campaign Barack Obama said, “[Today’s economic problems are] a stark reminder of the failures of . . . an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary.”
What? Does that mean that until last fall the Bush administration embraced the free market? Nonsense. Governments at all levels have [...]
Tear Down the Stop Signs!
Day after day in Warren, Michigan, people wait in a long line to pay traffic fines. Many are there because police say they didn’t come to a full stop at a stop sign. Often the policeman saying that is Officer David Kanapsky.
On a “20/20” segment earlier this year viewers heard a motorist in court insist [...]
Bless the Speculators
“I believe there needs to be a thorough and complete investigation of speculators to find out whether speculation has been going on and, if so, how much it has affected the price of a barrel of oil. There’s a lot of things out there that need a lot more transparency and, consequently, oversight.”
Those are the [...]
Legalize All Drugs
Reading the New York Post’s popular Page Six gossip page recently, I was surprised to find a picture of me, followed by the lines: “ABC’S John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with your right to get high. The crowd went silent at his call to legalize hard drugs.”
I had attended a Marijuana Policy [...]
The Conceit of the Regulators
Unless the government watches closely, the airlines will kill you.
That seems to be what many reporters and politicians believe.
“The result of inspection failures and enforcement failure [by the Federal Aviation Administration] has meant that aircraft have flown unsafe, un-airworthy and at risk of lives,” says Representative James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
“The FAA [...]
Presidents Can’t Manage the Economy
The presidential candidates have been repeatedly asked how they would “manage the economy.” With the exception of Ron Paul, every candidate has accepted the premise that this is something the president of the United States should do. Or can do.
Nonsense.
Democrats act like the president is national economic manager. Republicans pay lip service to free markets, [...]
Who’s Afraid of Prosperity?
Should we worry that the people of China, India, and other undeveloped countries are getting richer? Apparently so, according to the newspapers and the “experts” they quote. They don’t come right out and say that global prosperity is bad for us. Instead they say, as the New York Times recently said, “As development rolls across [...]
1Mar2008 | John Stossel | 0 comments | ContinuedDon’t Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet
Recently on “20/20” I said “give me a break” to Al Gore for claiming that the global-warming debate is over and suggesting that all dissenters were in it for the money. I interviewed independent scientists who say Gore is wrong.
Some people were relieved to finally hear the other side: “Thank you, thank you, thank you [...]
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Book Reviews
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Montessori, Dewey and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market In Education
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